Il Generale in Command

The 20th annual film festival in Venice opened with all the bang of a wet firecracker. The movies themselves were such drabs that even critics from the Communist press panned the Communist entries. Worse yet, bikinis were bigger, scandals were smaller, and most of the stars stayed away. Desperate news photographers finally invaded Elsa Maxwell's beach cabana in the forlorn hope of finding someone to shoot. But Elsa turned back the attack with a barrage of pillows and a trumpeted battle cry: "Away! Away, dogs!'' As for the festival, said Elsa, casually hamstringing an infinitive: "It's the most horrible thing to ever hit Venice."

That was before bald, chubby Roberto Rossellini came sprinting into town to turn the festival into a sorely needed personal triumph. His new picture, 77 Generale della Rovere, had been put together in just 33 days of shooting. Director Rossellini himself had seen the finished film only one day before the festival deadline; there was not even time for careful editing. But with money and time running out, Rossellini, whose reputation had been sliding downhill even before he ditched Ingrid Bergman for India's sloe-eyed Sonali Das Gupta, was forced to gamble on an unfinished draft. Despite the long odds, he won.

\int\int Generale brought the festival to life. The story of a wartime swindler named Giuseppe Bertoni (played by Vittorio De Sica), who was forced to become a Nazi spy but eventually gave his life for his country, the Rossellini effort was an almost unanimous critical success. "Comeback!" cried the critics, and talked of the old Rossellini of Paisan and Open City. "Finally a good film," beamed Rome's Tempo. "With this picture all hopes are rekindled. The old, glorious banner of the first Rossellinian neorealism flies again."

Another entry--possibly Hollywood's Anatomy of a Murder or France's Double Tour--might win the festival's Golden Lion of St. Mark. But whatever prize // Generate won in the final voting, it had already earned the heartfelt gratitude of the festival's organizers by transforming a show that was turning into what some critics called "the 20th yawn -- festival.'' Before Rossellini turned up, there was even talk that the festival might die out altogether in the next few years.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.