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My Voyage to Italy
Il Mio Viaggio in Italia
review by Carrie Gorringe, 21 June 2002
28th Seattle International Film
Festival Director Martin
Scorsese takes viewers on a long trip through the history of Italian
Cinema in My Voyage to Italy. Concentrating upon three
legendary filmmakers (Roberto Rosselini, Luchino Visconti and
Vittorio de Sica), Scorsese illustrates the effects that these
Neorealist filmmakers had upon his own work and, tangentially, his
sense of his own Italian heritage. He reverently instructs the
audience on the merits of these filmmakers' talents, from Rome,
Open City, to 8 1/2. The entire enterprise has all of the
hallmarks of a master class, with the director carefully leading his
"class" through the cinematic intricacies that marked Neorealist
cinema. Yet, for all of its breadth of knowledge (some
four-and-a-half hours worth), the documentary seems somehow devoid
of depth. The film's repeated use of the same material, with barely
a shift in interpretive method, tends to make the film's point of
view seem somewhat reductive and redundant. Those who are already
familiar with the development of Italian cinema will not find much
to enlighten them from a historical perspective. Although the film
never fails to inform, and its pacing never flags, there is a
lifelessness at its core that prevents it from truly presenting
either Neorealism or the psychological development of the director
himself. As a result, the audience leaves the theater with only a
minor improvement in the understanding of either.
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