Attack and Retreat (1964) Italiani brava gente (original title)

Director:

Giuseppe De Santis

Writers:

Ennio De Concini
Giuseppe De Santis
(more)

Release Date:

16 September 1964 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Chronicle of the unheralded and unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union by the Italian army during World War II. |

Plot Keywords:

Italian | Italian Army | Italian Wars | Soldier | Eastern Front

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Arthur Kennedy	...	Ferro Maria Ferri
Zhanna Prokhorenko	...	Katya
Raffaele Pisu	...	Gabrielli
Tatyana Samojlova	...	Sonya
Andrea Checchi	...	Sermonti
Riccardo Cucciolla	...	Sanna
Valeri Somov	...	Giuliani
Peter Falk	...	Medic Captain
Nino Vingelli	...	Amalfitano
Lev Prygunov	...	Bazzocchi
Grigory Mikhaylov	...	Russian Partisan (as Grigorij Mikhailov)
I. Paramonov	...	German Deserter
Gino Pernice	...	Collidi
Boris Kozhukhov	...	Major
Vincenzo Polizzi	...	Sicilian
Sergei Lukyanov	...	Partisan Commander (as S. Lukyanov)
I. Paramarov	...	Hidden German
Yuriy Nazarov	...	Russian Prisoner
Ervin Knausmyuller	...	German General (as E. Knausmyuller)
Otar Koberidze	...	Wounded Italian
Yan Yanakiyev	...	Doctor
Anatoli Sakhnovsky
Elza Lezhdey
Danuta Stolyarskaya
Lavrenti Masokha
Nina Nikitina		(as N. Nikitina)
Yuri Kaberdaze	...	Russian Prisoner
Franco Morici
Pasqualino Ferri
Mario Annibali
Alvaro Ceccarelli
Livia Contardi

Directed by
Giuseppe De Santis

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ennio De Concini
Giuseppe De Santis
Augusto Frassinetti
Gian Domenico Giagni

Produced by
Lionello Santi	....	producer

Original Music by
Armando Trovajoli

Cinematography by
Antonio Secchi

Film Editing by
Klavdiya Moskvina		(as Claudia Moskvina)
Mario Serandrei

Art Direction by
Ermanno Manco

Costume Design by
Luciana Marinucci

Production Management
Luigi Millozza	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Romolo Guerrieri	....	assistant director (as Romolo Girolami)
Dimitri Vassiliev	....	second unit director

Sound Department
Fausto Ancillai	....	sound mixer
Sergio Marcotulli	....	sound mixer
Nino Renda	....	sound mixer

Production Companies

• MosfilmGalatea

Distributors

• Embassy Pictures Corporation (1966) (USA) (subtitled)
• Titanus Distribuzione

Other Companies

• Kinostudiya "Mosfilm"  production unit

Also Known As:

"Italiani brava gente" - Italy (original title)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

Italy | Soviet Union

Language:

Italian | Russian | German | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Portugal:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Bessarabia, UkraineBug River, Ukraine

Company:

MosfilmGalatea

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Russian tanks featured in the film are T-34/85's, which were not produced until early 1944, a full a year after the events in this film took place.

One of the best war films

I remember seeing this movie (Attack and Retreat) as a kid back in the seventies. There are many, many images which have stuck in my mind from this film: The young soldier and girl in the vast sunflower field, the lone Russian tank mowing down Italian troops in a Russian town, Soviet cavalry charging over the snow fields, "Stalin's Organs" rocket launchers filling the skies with fire, a good-natured chase to get to a dead snow rabbit in no-man's land, all this after 30 years!

I recently bought the video of this film, and forgot how good it really is. The best thing about it is the subject matter. One-it is a war film Two-it lacks a sappy romance angle Three-it deals with the Russian Front and Four-it deals with the Italian Army on that front.

Strikes against it (only from a modern film viewers point of view, not mine) One-it was done in Italian, then over-dubbed in English Two-it is, after all, a war film without sappy romance and Three-it is in black and white.

The feeling of loneliness, fear, panic, and desolation come out well in this movie. I can easily imagine the story of these men on the Russian front as having been real...it was as if the director himself had been there (not sure if he was). No character is expendable in this film (as it should be in a war film), so the fear of danger for each character is always there (much like Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front). The viewer is made to feel close to these men, because they are shown as being good, decent men caught in a huge man-destroying machine called the Eastern Front. The director shows much disdain for the German allies, portrays the Spanish allies as being rather silly running around with their banner even when the Earth was crashing down around them, and shows much respect for the Soviet soldiers, almost admiration. Pro-communist sympathy from a 1960's Italian director should be far from surprising. Even the characters liked the Internationale. One soldier liked to play it on his harmonica, and near the end two of them are whistling it. The Black Shirt "elite troops" were shown as thieves, cowards, and rapists. The average Italian soldiers were portrayed as victims along with the Russians.

One interesting thing about the film was the appearance of Peter Falk as an Italian Army surgeon/playboy, about ten years before he became better known as the TV character Columbo.