Roberto Rossellini

Europe ’51

Europe ’51

Ingrid Bergman plays a wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite racked by guilt over the shocking death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity. The intense, often overlooked Europe ’51 was, according to Rossellini, a retelling of his own The Flowers of St. Francis from a female perspective. This unabashedly political but sensitively conducted investigation of modern sainthood was the director’s favorite of his films.

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Film Info

  • Italy
  • 1952
  • 109 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #674

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration of the English-language version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New high-definition digital restoration of the Italian-language version, Europa ’51, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Introduction by director Roberto Rossellini
  • New interview with film critic Adriano Aprà
  • New interview with film historian Elena Dagrada on the different versions of the film
  • New interview with Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman’s daughters, Ingrid Rossellini and Isabella Rossellini (DVD)
  • My Dad Is 100 Years Old, a 2005 short film directed by Guy Maddin and starring Isabella Rossellini (DVD)
  • New interview with G. Fiorella Mariani, Rossellini’s niece, featuring Bergman’s home movies (DVD)
  • The Chicken, a 1952 short film directed by Rossellini and starring Bergman (DVD)
  • New English subtitle translation

Available In

Collector's Set

3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman

3 Films by Rossellini Starring Bergman

Blu-ray Box Set

4 Discs

$79.96

Collector's Set

3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman

3 Films by Rossellini Starring Bergman

DVD Box Set

5 Discs

$79.96

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration of the English-language version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New high-definition digital restoration of the Italian-language version, Europa ’51, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Introduction by director Roberto Rossellini
  • New interview with film critic Adriano Aprà
  • New interview with film historian Elena Dagrada on the different versions of the film
  • New interview with Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman’s daughters, Ingrid Rossellini and Isabella Rossellini (DVD)
  • My Dad Is 100 Years Old, a 2005 short film directed by Guy Maddin and starring Isabella Rossellini (DVD)
  • New interview with G. Fiorella Mariani, Rossellini’s niece, featuring Bergman’s home movies (DVD)
  • The Chicken, a 1952 short film directed by Rossellini and starring Bergman (DVD)
  • New English subtitle translation
Europe ’51
Cast
Ingrid Bergman
Irene
Alexander Knox
George
Ettore Giannini
Andrea
Giulietta Masina
Passerotto
Teresa Pellati
Ines
Marcella Rovena
Mrs. Strada
Alberto Plebani
Mr. Strada
Tina Perna
Cesira
Sandro Franchina
Michel
Maria Zanoli
Mrs. Galli
William Tubbs
Professor Alessandrini
Alfred Browne
Priest
Antonio Pietrangeli
Psychiatrist
Credits
Director
Roberto Rossellini
Produced by
Roberto Rossellini
Story
Roberto Rossellini
Screenplay
Sandro De Feo
Screenplay
Mario Pannunzio
Screenplay
Ivo Perilli
Screenplay
Brunello Rondi
Cinematography
Aldo Tonti
Music
Renzo Rossellini
Production manager
Bruno Todini
Editor
Iolanda Benvenuti
Production design
Virgilio Marchi
Set decoration by
Ferdinando Ruffo
Associate producers
Dino De Laurentiis
Associate producers
Carlo Ponti

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Explore

Roberto Rossellini

Writer, Producer, Director

Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini

A founder of Italian neorealism, Roberto Rossellini brought to filmmaking a documentary-like authenticity and a philosophical stringency. After making films under Mussolini’s fascist regime early in his career, Rossellini broke out with Rome Open City, a shattering and vivid chronicle of the Nazi occupation of Italy’s capital, followed by Paisan and Germany Year Zero, which round out his “war trilogy.” Rossellini’s adulterous affair with Ingrid Bergman led to the biggest controversy of his career (they were both condemned by the United States Senate) but also to another trilogy—Stromboli, Europa ’51, and Voyage to Italy, all starring Bergman and all about spiritual crises; they were dismissed at the time of their release but are widely praised now. Through the 1950s, Rossellini experimented with different forms, offering an ascetic religious film (The Flowers of St. Francis), a documentary about India (India), and a wartime melodrama that was one of his biggest hits (Il Generale Della Rovere). In the final phase of his career, after calling a news conference and announcing, “Cinema is dead,” Rossellini turned to historical television dramas about major subjects and figures (Louis XIV, Blaise Pascal, Descartes, the Medicis), made with a rational, almost scientific approach. As always, he yearned to show life’s minutiae unadorned, bare and pure. Echoes of Rossellini’s approach to filmmaking are still felt in movements around the world, from China to Iran to South America to the United States. It’s fair to say modern cinema wouldn’t exist as we know it without him.

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