Il cammino della speranza

A group of Sicilian miners facing the closing of the sulfur mine they work in are lured in by smuggler Saro Urzì (Apollonia's father in "The Godfather") to migrate to France where there are better job prospects. They sell everything they have, bringing entire families along, only to have Urzì abandon them in Rome. They take on the rest of the journey on their own.

This is a really unjustly obscure neorealist melodrama from Pietro Germi, better known for his 1960's comedies like "Divorce - Italian Style". It's a beautifully shot and massively entertaining film with a really wonderful lead performance from Raf Vallone (who turns up later in "The Italian Job" and "The Godfather, Part III") and a really great ensemble cast. This definitely should be one of the stock neorealist films that everyone sees, but it's not even available on DVD with English subtitles.

In my opinion, this movie is an Italian version of the John Ford ´The Grapes of Wrath´ (1940) because it has similar characteristics, where a group of people are forced to abandon their land and seek a better life in an unknown place, going through innumerable difficulties in their long journey, in a time of economic depression. Raf Vallone even looks like Henry Fonda as the central person of the group. Fantastic movie.

This is a powerful, monumental film 'inspired' by a novel of Nino di Maria with screenplay by Fellini, Pinelli and Pietro Germi who directs. Cinematographer Leonida Barboni has captured incredible images, both scenically and facially whilst Carlo Rustichelli has contributed one of his most powerful scores. The burgeoning relationship between Saro and Barbera played by husband and wife team Raf Vallone and Elena Varzi is beautifully and sensitively handled. The final scene of the 'illegal' immigrants being intercepted in the snow by Franco-Italian customs officials is unforgettable. Not for nothing is this film named as one of the '100 Italian films to be saved' as it has majesty, vigour, character and humanity. Perhaps because it was released when people no longer wished to be reminded of economic hardship and were looking ahead to a brighter, more prosperous future, this film was not much lauded at the time although it did at least win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film festival. One of Germi's best and sits honourably with 'Grapes of Wrath' as both drama and social commentary. Undeservedly neglected.

There were many italian immigrants in France in the post-war years ;it began to decline in the mid-seventies ; French often called them names,notably "macaronis" and there were social tensions ,the "wops " being strike-breakers . Just as it happens in the movie between compatriots ,between people from Sicily and those they met on the farm ,the people from northern Italy.

Pietro Germi's odyssey belongs to the Italian neo -realism and it has worn well,in spite of unfair critics , because the subplots are kept to economical levels: the Saro/Barbara /Vanni triangle which sometimes gets in the way ,is given small time in the whole movie.

The true hero is not Vallone but this little group , who leaves unemployement and poverty of their native island for the broader horizons of France , their promised land ;Vallone does not play the part of Mosis ,and it's better that way. This won't be a easy journey ,but a rocky road where they come against the carabinieri : their expatriation is illegal ;besides they are betrayed by their smuggler ;and for their compatriots ,they are nothing but scabs.

And however it seems that at first ,on the farm ,a fraternity could exist : the Sicilian's guitar and the northern worker's accordion make everyone dance .These people who have given all they have for something new and unknown , show humanity (the bride's bouquet thrown on a mama's grave),solidarity ( they keep Barbara with them on the truck);sometimes they have to give up on their dreams,mainly the older ones ("I prefer to die where I was born") .

The ending has been blamed ,considered artificial happy end :but only a few of them were able to get to the border,and anyway,is it Heaven's gate (see what I wrote at the beginning of my comment)?But Pietro Germi wanted to leave his audience on a hopeful note : and anyway,whatever lays in store for them in France ,is it worse than their empty mines in Sicily ,where they nearly died :wasn't it some kind of hell?