Der falsche General

Concerning a WWII marketeer and swindler called Bardone : Vittorio De Sica , he often uses to disguise as an officer to get money from the the families of people put in prison by the Gestapo . Once trapped , the Nazis make a deal with him . Then he is forced by a Nazi Colonel Muller : Hannes Messerner to go undercover in a local jail. To find out who the resistance leader is , he poses as a General called Della Rovere . But when the inmates start looking him for guidance , it leads to tragic consequences . He's a Hero...or a Fake ?

This General Della la Rovere 1969 magnificently played by Vittorio De Sica as a petty con man deals with the fantastic wartime adventures and intrigues of the mountebank who held the fate of the fighting undergroung in his hands . Eventually , our hero finds the line between his assumed character and actual identity diminished , awakening his slumbering conscience, resulting in a dramatic conclusion . It contains an interesting and thought-provoking screenplay from Indro Montanelli , Sergio Amadei , Fabbri and Roberto Rossellini himself . Starring Vittorio De Sica is well accompanied by a good cast , such as : Hannes Messemer , Sandra Milo , Anne Vernon , Vittorio Caprioli , Giovanna Ralli , Franco Interlenghi , Linda Veras, Modugno, Luciano Pigozi or Allan Collins , among others.

There is another inferior version 2011 directed by Carlo Carlei starrred by Pierfrancesco Faviano and Shopov . Il Generale Della Rovere 1959 displays an evocative cinematography in black and white by Carlo Cardini . As well as atmospheric and sensitive musical score by Renzo Rossellini . The motion picture was stunningly directed by Roberto Rosselini . He was a prestigious writer and director, making notorious films, such as : "Paisan" , "The Miracle" , "Amore" , "Stromboli" , "The Flowers of St Francis" , "Europe" , " Voyage in Italy" , "Seven Deadly Sins" , "Blas Pascal", "The Rise of Louis XIV" , "Agustín of Hippo" , "The Messiah" , among others . Rating : 7.5/10. Above average, well worth seeing . Especially recommended for featuring a bravura lead interpretation by veteran Vittorio De Sica .

Filmed in thirty-three days and edited in ten, this is the first of Rossellini's films post 'Rome, Open City' to be both critically and commercially successful on its release which irked the director no end. Although it lacks the immediacy of the earlier film and its location shooting has been replaced by studio sets whilst being sluggishly directed at times, it remains both gripping and exciting due to the splendid performances by Vittorio de Sica as charlatan Bardone and Hannes Messemer as SS Colonel Mueller whose relationship provides the linchpin of the piece.

Unlike Rossellini, de Sica had no qualms regarding commercialism and as a director excelled in neo-realism and when that genre went out of fashion, Commedia all'Italiana, at the same time creating an artiste from the raw material that was Sophia Loren. He actually logged more time as a actor, mainly to pay off his gambling debts. Had he not been a first class director/actor he would undoubtedly have been a magnificent snake-oil salesman and this, combined with his compulsive gambling, makes his casting here a masterstroke. Hannes Messemer is called upon to be cruel and calculating but is able to imbue his character with a certain nobility and is probably best known to English speaking viewers as the 'decent' German in 'The Great Escape'. As a self-sacrificing partisan Aristide Belchelli gives a fine performance whilst on the distaff side there are touching turns by Sandra Milo and Anne Vernon with Giovanna Ralli looking incredibly edible.

It has been adapted from the story by Indro Montanelli who himself served time in San Vittore and based Bardone on a fellow inmate named Bertone who was killed by firing squad. Upon the film's release Bertone's family filed a defamation suit against the director.

From being out of favour, Rossellini has regained some of his prestige by returning to his origins of war and resistance. Although he felt that by making this film he had 'sold out', this more conventional piece remains by far his most accessible and one of his most powerful.

Winner of many top international festival prizes, this was one of Roberto Rossellini's most widely seen films in America after OPEN CITY and PAISAN. It is a superbly written, directed, and acted drama about a petty conniver, Bertone, alias Grimaldi, played by Vittorio De Sica in what is possibly his greatest acting role. He is not above loving people and swindling them at the same time. He does this to survive the hard times of Mussolini's Salo' Republic period. The film is set in Genoa after the Badoglio armistice has been signed with the Allies in the south. Bertone tries to help Italians who have relatives imprisoned by the Nazis. Sometimes he can help; other times he cannot but always takes their money. When his game is finally up, he is imprisoned but offered an opportunity by the Germans. He is to impersonate a revered partisan leader already killed by the Nazis in order to furnish them information on another partisan leader in the anti-fascist underground. It is at this point that Bertone gradually undergoes a transformation, choosing patriotism over capitulation. The con-man becomes a hero. Other standout performances here are given by Sandra Milo as a prostitute, Hannes Messemer as the Nazi commandant and Vittorio Caprioli as an inmate barber.

Roberto Rossellini, as a filmmaker, cannot be compared to anyone else. Not because of any camera technique but because his mind, to tell a story, took shortcuts through truly dangerous territories. The nervous center of the Italian human nature is dissected with fierceness, compassion and even a touch of admiration. Redemption coming in the most unexpected form as a last, final test. Who am I, really? Could I at the last moment of my life become the man I always wanted to be? Beautiful, poignant, terrifying. Vittorio De Sica gives one the best performances of his eclectic and extraordinary career. The traveling of his thoughts seem to come out of the screen with the same intensity as his real smallness, his fear, his painful self awareness. Truth, with all is uncomfortable connotations 24 frames a second.

An understated masterpiece, this film charts the moral growth in nearly the worst of times of Victorio Grimaldi played by Vittorio De Sica. Other comments set out the main lines of the plot and note the excellence of de Sica as the not-good, but not all-bad, Grimaldi who is just trying to survive, like everyone else. But it evolves in a story of one man trying to live up to the expectations of others, who have had it even harder than he has. Planted in the prison to impersonate the heroic General della Rovere, Grimaldi slowly begins to act like the leader that Rovere was. In one touching scene, while under a terrifying bombardment, he cowers in his cell only to stiffen himself to shout out encouragement to the others, before collapsing in prayer and mortal dread. In this two or three minute episode we learn more about courage than from a score of action movies and thrillers. And of course Grimaldi learns something about himself, too, in a way, and also something about General della Rovere. Toward the end Grimaldi takes on the role of the now dead general so completely that he writes a letter to the general's wife encouraging her to persevere, while he willingly faces execution by the Germans to set an example to other Italians to resist. It is a powerful story of growth, self-realization, and redemption in terrible conditions, though there is also a hint of Italian patriotism, too. The film is hard to get but I managed it a few years ago on VHS, so seekers, persist! It is worth the effort.