One of Roberto Rossellini’s greatest talents was that for survival. Whenever he’d hit a career impasse, he’d find a way out. After the unhappy shooting of Dov’è la libertà…? (which he started in 1953 and left mid-work, with Mario Monicelli finishing the production a year later, uncredited) and the vitriolic disinterest with which Angst (1954) was met by audiences and reviewers alike, Rossellini turned towards the virgin territory of television, shooting three psychodramas devised by Jacob Levy Moreno, a pioneer of group psychotherapy.
In doing so, Rossellini again placed himself where he liked to be best: at the epicentre of the zeitgeist – psychodrama was then the last word in therapy. But, as in the case of Dov’è la libertà…?, Rossellini walked off the production – and this time nobody picked up the pieces. Seen now, with the 1956 materials put into a presentable shape, Le psychodrame reveals itself to be an unexpected key piece in the mosaic that is Rossellini’s oeuvre/legacy.
Film details
- Country of production
- France
- Year
- 1956
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2019
- Length
- 53"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
You may also like this
-
Revisited
Film-in-Film2: Zanussi has the protagonist of his previous film meet characters from several earlier movies for a debate on the meaning of life.
Double Ghosts
In 1995, Raúl Ruiz shot La comedie des ombres in Taiwan, but never edited the material. George Clark wonders what this work could have been
Pierre Schoendoerffer, la peine des hommes
The unedited audio of an interview with Schoendoerffer meets the filming session’s few remaining images – slowed down. An ess