La grande strada azzurra (1957)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Directors:

Gillo Pontecorvo
Maleno Malenotti

Writers:

Franco Solinas (novel) and
Ennio De Concini (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 May 1959 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Squarciò, a fisherman, lives with his family on a small island off the Dalmatian coast of Italy. Like his fellow villagers...

Plot Keywords:

Bomb | Boat | Italy | Dalmatian | Fisherman

Cast

Yves Montand	...	Giovanni Squarciò
Alida Valli	...	Rosetta, la moglie
Francisco Rabal	...	Salvatore
Umberto Spadaro	...	Gaspare Puggioni, 1st Coast Guard Officer
Peter Carsten	...	Riva, 2nd Coast Guard Officer
Federica Ranchi	...	Diana Squarciò, la figlia
Terence Hill	...	Renato (as Mario Girotti)
Ronaldo Bonacchi	...	Bore Squarciò, il figlio (as Ronaldino Bonacchi)
Giancarlo Soblone	...	Antonio 'Tonino' Squarciò, il figlio
Josip Batistic
Stane Potokar
Angelo Zanolli
Giorgio Kuru
Janez Vrhovec
Milutin Jasnic

Also Known As:

Das Leben ist ohne Gnade (West Germany)
Das Leben ohne Gnade (West Germany)
La grande route bleue (France) (literal title)
The Wide Blue Road
Un dénommé Squarcio (France)
Veliki plavi put (Yugoslavia: Serbian title)
A nagy kék országút (Hungary) [hu]
Das Leben ist ohne Gnade (Austria) [de]
Den grymma vägen (Sweden) [sv]
Die grosse blaue Strasse (East Germany) [de]
El gran camino azul (Argentina) [es]
O dromos tis orgis (Greece) [el]
Prisionero del mar (Spain) [es]
Un dénommé Squarcio (Belgium: French title) (dubbed version) [fr]
Vaarallinen saalistaja (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

Germany:90 min | Italy:103 min | USA:99 min | Argentina:105 min | West Germany:97 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany | Yugoslavia

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Ferraniacolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:12 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13

Company:

Eichberg-Film

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cinemania (2002)

Relentless, yet beautiful and compassionate

A man's relentless drive toward self-destruction is the tenor plot in this film, but the surrounding study of human nature, and of what can be the ultimate values in life fill out the canvas. Squarcio, the hero, has through good fortune escaped detection long enough to establish a comfortable life for his family and loving wife. Other fishermen, who have reason enough to detest him, consistently show him compassion - their basic good natures prevailing. Squarcio, though, like a "Sturm und Drang" character, relentlessly pursues a path his logic - and wife and children - tell him he should abandon. He is offered other choices; he sees other charismatic characters uselessly die - yet his actions are emotionally driven.

At mid-film, the local coast guard commander chooses to retire, to quit service before having to witness the death or imprisonment of his childhood friend. I, the viewer, felt likewise - very much like abandoning the theater before the inevitable. Yet I stayed on, hoping for some early hint of a happy end to come.

But for me, the most memorable moments in this film were certain sea scenes set to challenge the most beautiful and intriguing of any painting of the old Venetian school - sepia sails, emerald seas, white and green (?) hulls, and old fortresses in the background - all looking a bit unreal, like a child's playthings, almost too perfect, too harmonic. Squarcio, of course, wasn't part of such scenes - he was off on his own, individualist but misguided path.