Amargo Despertar

It seems to me that this movie was an adaptation of Thomas Mann " The Magic Mountain " but i see no credit. I just couldn't help but notice the strong comparisons between the book/movie however although i did prefer the book, the movie should be recommended....if you can find it!!.

A Brief Vacation is a quiet Italian drama from 1973, directed by Vittorio De Sica who was acclaimed for The Bicycle Thief a quarter century earlier.

Florinda Bolkan plays a female factory worker in Milan whose husband's employment has been sidelined for the time being by injury. Thus she is the breadwinner for a family that includes children, a mother-in-law, and a brother-in-law. She already is close to collapse from the wear and tear of her job, and the fatigue of the train commutes to and from it. Family members prove extremely selfish, increasing the stress and burden.

But she has a spot on her lung, a patch of tuberculosis, the equivalent of a golden war wound in combat. There is insurance for health care, and a guarantee of a continued flow of salary during leave for recuperation. The movie makes a welcome shift to a sanatorium in the Alps, where the only demands are to get plenty of sleep and rest and be pampered by the doctors, nurses, and other staffers. This is the brief vacation from which the movie title derives, and brings a chance to meet new friends and a pause to reflect on life. De Sica via the interruption produces another winner.

It might be added that it was a long wait to see the movie again. A Brief Vacation was never released on VHS, and consequently it took three full decades, and the advent of the DVD era, to bring the film to home viewers. Take advantage.

This is the story of a woman given a respite from her grim life as a devoted wife and mother. She takes her illness in stride and goes off to the mountains to a sanatorium for a cure. While there, she meets people she would never have met otherwise and has time to experience a life other than one of drudgery and selfless devotion. She is even given a chance of escape/salvation. Will she take it? Ah, but that would be a spoiler!

This superb movie shows that realism can be moving and gripping. This woman's plight, her decency and her quiet heroism make for one of the best motion pictures ever made. If it could be released on video or DVD, I'm sure it would do well. Let's hope the owner of the rights to this movie soon figures this out.

Florinda Balkan stars as a factory worker battered by her crippled husband who discovers she has lung disease and is send on medical leave to a TB resort in the mountains for treatment. Here she is romanced by a handsome patient from a nearby facility and develops close friendships with her roommates, sharing their triumphs and disappointments while they battle with fates of mortality. The great irony results in that she is cured, but ruined by the fact she must return to her factory work and poor, abusive family. Fans of Bette Davis (Jezebel) and Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce) will enjoy her portrayal of a strong tragic heroine. I must admit scenes with her abusive husband and fellow TB patients are quite hard-hitting, but worth enduring to see the powerful finale.

This is an amazingly beautiful film. The story of a woman of little means and a horrendous family life who learns much about the world in a sanatorium in the Italian alps. It gives her a brief vacation from a hard life. And understanding. And hope. Truly wonderful. Florinda Bolkan is a great actress ... emoting without emotion. This movie has many levels of plot and story rolled into a single, seemingly simple story. There are many levels of relationships in the movie. Of particular interest is the set of relationships formed between patients from the upper class, the 'paying' patients and those who are in the sanatorium paid for by the national health. The juxtapositions between have and have not, happy and sad, sick and healthy, doctor and patient, hardworking and lazy and many others form the basis of what we see as Clara's learning process and set of life dilemmas.

Hard to find but worth it. Belongs on the top 250 list....but not enough people have seen it to vote.