La fille et le général

This movie from Pasquale Festa Campanile goes someway towards bridging a gap between the two forms of cinema for which Italy is generally noted: realism and 'Spaghetti' westerns. Another distinctive score from Ennio Morricone swings from the quirky hiccups of wordless vocals to the lush, melancholic strings that swell each time Umberto Orsini's private and Virna Lisi's illiterate peasant woman enjoy a tender moment, while the obvious eye on an international market is displayed by the casting of Rod Steiger in the role of the general.

More a road movie than a war film, the conflict merely acts as a backdrop to writer Luigi Malerba's examination of the lengths to which people will go to survive – and the manner in which personal honour is forsaken – at times of extreme hardship. The three principal characters can be seen as representatives of the characters of war – officers, foot soldiers and civilians. All are mistrustful of the other for much of the film, and constantly betray one another; despite entering into an uneasy liaison to transport the General behind Italian lines in return for a 1000 lira reward, the private and the peasant woman steal or hide food from each other, even as they fall in love, while the General treats both with a kind of weary contempt for much of the picture. However, the simple wisdom of the otherwise vaguely oafish private ("If the world were full of gentlemen there'd be no war" he declares when the General tries to explain the Geneva Convention as a gentlemen's agreement to him), coupled with the desire of the peasant woman to better herself, gradually chip away at his cold exterior until, as the film approaches its climax, the trio are transformed from captors and prisoner into travelling companions who must work together to survive. Ironically, as the imbalance of their relative social standings is erased, another lower class must be found – and is done so in the ragged form of a one-eared donkey.

Filmed in lush colour that almost saturates the screen at times, the film offers some marvellous landscapes of Italian countryside contrasted with frequent shots of rocky terrain. The characters stumble through this landscape with little idea of where they are headed, following the sounds of battle as they seek to catch the retreating Italian lines. Steiger rarely stretches himself in his role as the General, which isn't necessarily a bad thing; in full flow he can be a little overbearing, and this isn't the kind of film to benefit from that kind of performance. Orsini, seemingly a little-known actor outside of his native country, gives a decent performance in a role that is occasionally in danger of becoming a little bland at times, while the wonderful Virna Lisi puts in a terrific performance that indicates how badly Hollywood misused her talents during her brief unsuccessful sojourn in the States. Only some abrupt cuts at moments when it appears that we are about to gain a little more insight into the characters, and some poor continuity between scenes mars a film that could otherwise be highly recommended.

A solidly produced, very entertaining, low budget comedy-drama with a fine leading cast providing excellent, more-than-satisfying performances.

During World War I, a poor Italian private (Orsini) and a peasant girl (Lisi) capture an aristocratic Austrian General (Steiger). The Italians trek back to their own lines, hoping to gain a fortune of 1,000 Lira for the capture of the general.

The movie focuses on the three leads for virtually the entire film. The only supporting characters involved are a few Austrian soldiers and one Italian who appears at the beginning, only to be captured and instantly forgotten. Otherwise, the film is all about the central characters. Each actor makes their character come alive. Orsini is excellent as the somewhat dimwitted, illiterate Italian private who, like thousands of others, was drafted. It's just his pure luck that he captured the General. Lisi, like Orsini, is illiterate. She, however, is a civilian. Her everyday life has been disrupted by the war. She has to beg, scour and scrounge for food, water and clothing. She knows that the money can benefit her, also, and is constantly double-crossing Orsini - although the two inevitably fall in love.

Steiger, on the other hand, is great in an offbeat role as the General. He's not a loud, maniacal general a la WATERLOO. Instead, he is sympathetic to his captors for one moment; but, taking advantage of their slight stupidity, he is constantly escaping - only to be captured again. He has a few sentimental moments - teaching the girl to write her name; explaining that he only fights in war because his father did before him; comforting the girl during her last moments. By the end of the film, Steiger has transformed into a caring, likeable father figure; Orsini has gone from a selfish young man to a more sacrificing husband; and Lisi is a more concerned wife.

The movie, while being basically a character study - drama, has quite a few memorable comic moments. Men locked inside a water barrel rolling into a river; long, witty dialog scenes between the smart fool Orsini and the pompous General Steiger; etc. It's all funny in a subtle way; nothing will have you outright laughing, and most of the gags don't really kick in until AFTER they're over with.

The Italian scenery is absolutely stunning. Every shot is filled with breathtaking background images of blue skies, green mountains, rocky valleys and rushing rivers. Ennio Morricone provides (as usual) a perfect music score. At times, it's ultra-weird, with a mix of Italian lyrics and odd instrumentation; some pieces have a strong resemblance to his later, war-time theme in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY - most recognizably during the scene with the drunken Union Captain.

Turner Classic Movies plays a nearly perfect print of this movie. The colors are fresh, accurate and intense. There is hardly a print flaw. It is presented in an aspect ration of about 1.77:1. I wish TCM would release more Italian war films - or, just more Italian films - with the same great digital restoration.

THE GIRL AND THE GENERAL is an overlooked, funny and dramatic anti-war picture. It is not instantly a classic, by any means, but still holds its place in the genre and is worth seeking out.

RATING: 7/10

The Girl and the General has a special place in my heart - I saw this late one night when I was about 10 years old when cable TV was brand new and they were desperate for programming. Lucky for me. This was my first real exposure to the wonderful explosion of realism in Italian cinema from the '60's.

The movie does a wonderful job of depicting war as something that happens during peoples' lives, not vice versa. Rather than the defining element of the time, its another element in of life, where people fear, and hope, and struggle.

Wonderfully acted, good cinematography (as long as you remember that this is realism), and decent editing. Full of humor and pathos.

More than anything this resembles a spaghetti western updated to a different, more modern, period setting. In as much as it follows the picaresque adventures of three bickering travelling companions in a search for treasure against a background of war it is strikingly similar to parts of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. In addition it has a typically Italian soundtrack from Ennio Morricone and uses breathtaking landscapes to good effect. Unlike that film, however, this has no clear sense of what it is or even what it would like to be. There are elements of the war film, there are certainly moments of broad comedy, a dash of romance, and, towards the end a touch of tragedy. While none of these go to make it a coherent narrative, and there is precious little plot to speak of, they combine to form a diverting film which goes nowhere in particular. It also put me in mind of Argento's LE CINQUE GIORNATE although the attempts at social commentary in Festa's effort are slighter. He deals well with the struggle of peasant people and indeed soldiers to find food during wartime, a theme which runs throughout the movie. To his credit Festa does manage to extract a less-mannered than usual performance out of Steiger. This was the first film of Lisi's that I had seen and while she makes an impression as the feisty Ada I couldn't say that she was in the same league as Claudia Cardinale. Umberto Orsini is okay as the soldier but perhaps overplays the 'stupid but loveable' angle. Perhaps the best moments involve a lazy donkey, including some great scenes where Lisi tries to get it to drag the other two along in a giant barrell!

I caught this film on Turner Classic Movies and it kept my interest throughout the entire movie. It was my first viewing of an Italian postwar piece, and I was quite impressed. The only noted actor in the film was Steiger, and his performance certainly was not his best, but the movie was still very good. Overall, I thought that it reflected the futility of war through the struggles of these three characters very well, inserting comedy where appropriate. The Soldier and the Girl had several great, very funny scenes interacting with each other, and the comedy of the movie, though hard to place in a somewhat depressing war movie, actually worked very well. A hard-to-find but worthy film.