Volcano

Vulcano

1950 · Italy · 101 min

Director: William Dieterle
Screenplay: Vitaliano Brancati, Mario Chiari, Victor Stoloff, Piero Tellini
Producer: Panaria Film
Music: Enzo Masetti
Cinematography: Arturo Gallea
Editing: Giancarlo Cappelli

Cast

Geraldine Brooks

Enzo Staiola

Rosina Galli

What it is about

Maddalena Natoli, a former prostitute, is sent back under police order to the island where she was born. There she meets the hostility of the islanders, who treat her with suspicion and keep their distance. Her main concern is protecting her younger sister from the attentions of a deep-sea diver. The tension between the protagonist and the community drives a drama about stigma, reputation and loyalty within a family.

How it was made

Volcano is an Italian production by Panaria Film, directed by William Dieterle from a screenplay by Vitaliano Brancati, Mario Chiari, Victor Stoloff and Piero Tellini. Anna Magnani leads the cast alongside Rossano Brazzi and Geraldine Brooks, with music by Enzo Masetti. Filming took place on location on Salina, in the Aeolian Islands, and in the Sicilian city of Messina. It was shot at the same time as Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli on a nearby island, which invited constant comparisons between the two projects.

Reception and legacy

The film is usually remembered for the circumstances of its making. Some have read it as a kind of riposte by Magnani to Rossellini, her former lover, during a public rivalry with Ingrid Bergman, the star of Rossellini's film. That competition, widely covered in the press of the time, partly overshadowed the film's own merits. Over time, critics have tended to value it as a drama of atmosphere and as an example of the period's interest in location shooting and the social reality of southern Italy.