Reviews & Ratings for
Christ Stopped at Eboli More at IMDbPro »Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (original title)

27 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
loyal to his tradition, 9 March 2005

Author: ali gara (kuheylanus@yahoo.com) from Turkey

Christ Stopped at Eboli is one of the best movies by Rossi, loyal to his tradition of neorealism. The movie depicts isolated rural-peasant life as an account of an urban intellectual – doctor, painter and a political activist who has been exiled to this remote area due to his political dissent during the Fascist rule in Italy. Not like similar movies in lenght, Crist Stopped at Eboli constantly absorbs audience, probably due to its realist description and selective representation of peasant life which is "frozen in time". The film pushes the audience to contemplate on philosophical aspects of the concept of time and it is heavily imbued with the display of social and political problems.

Rosi beautifully describes the destitute of the peasant settlers of this remote and isolated land, their ignorance and apolitical life, the deep rift between these people and state, and the irrelevance of the quasi-comic "victories" of the Il Duce to these people among many other social and political issues. Like Rosi's other movies here again neorealist representation goes along with the combination of documentary techniques and fictional context. Rosi lets the images to speak for themselves rather than the Gian Maria Volente who is in the central role in the movie.

In the movie (as it is in the book), the peasant life and urbanity are represented as two alien civilizations and antithesis of each other. These peasants have their own way of life, own customs, own aspirations and means of joy. What is going on Rome or the war in Abyssinia for "regaining the glory of the Rome" does not capture their interest. They are aware of the state through the taxes collected or men called for military service. In his letter, Levi describes the urban civilization as an antithesis of this peasant life which aspired throughout the history to "colonize" it.

The Christ Stopped at Eboli also pushes the audience to ponder on the philosophical meaning of history, its relevance nature and meaning. It describes this peasant life as "frozen in history", cut from outside life and lacking the understanding of time that we have. History as we understand is the history of "urban civilization". As peasants are alien to this civilization they are alien to this concept of time as well. In the village you stop counting days, hours as they become more and more irrelevant, there you return and base your life on the natural cycle of life which is based on seasons. In this sense the movie challenges our notion of history which is the history of the "city".

In this sense Christ Stopped at Eboli is very analogous to Y. K. Karaosmanoğlu's Yaban. Yaban is also the story of a Turkish intellectual war veteran who abandons amenities of Istanbul for the Central Anatolian village with the hope of finding his roots and alleviating the torments of his memoirs. However, to his disappointment he finds himself in an alien peasant "civilization" where he can not communicate to those people, can not be similar to them and can not understand their aspirations. What makes Yaban and Christ stopped at Eboli similar is their approach to dichotomous nature of human civilization and the concept of time. In both novels there is a representation of antagonist peasant and urban civilizations, and a relative concept of time. In both novels there is description of life which is "frozen in time" and alien to urbanity. Indeed the study of Yaban from this perspective can be insightful for the discussions of continuity and change in the History of Mediterranean, as Turkey is widely excluded from such studies. However when you read Christ stopped at Eboli and Yaban what strikes you first is the patterns of similarity in peasant life and experience of the intellectuals visiting these places. They can back both the universality of "two civilizations" argument and lounge duree approach in the Mediterranean area.

8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Exile, 19 November 2006

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Carlo Levi, an Italian who fought against the arrival of Fascism in his native Torino, was arrested for his activities and sent to exile in the Lucania region of the country, now known as Basilicata. The hill town of Gagliano was to be his home for the time he had to serve. This was the Italy of the 1930s where the rise of Mussolini and his quest for conquering Ethiopia, an ill conceived idea from the start.

We watch as Dr. Levi arrives at the Eboli station, where he must change to a local train and a taxi in order to reach the hill town, which was also the home of other political prisoners. Right after Levi descends from his train at Eboli, he sees Barone, a dog that has been abandoned and who will become his companion in exile. His arrival in Gagliano causes curiosity among the local folk, who see in him a cultured man who sticks out. Carlo Levi observes the people as he takes his daily walks. He can't help but notice how backward everyone seems to him. At the same time, he gets to appreciate them because even if they are ignorant of the outside world, they are genuine.

Levi, who had training as a physician, receives a visit from his sister Luisa, a doctor herself. He comments on the primitive state of medicine in the town, a place that boasts two doctors, who are ineffective and set in their ways. Levi clashes with the mayor, a man who is a devout follower of Mussolini and his movement, because the way he wants to censor his communication with friends. After he receives his release, Levi is not prepared for the way he made his presence felt among the locals who come to see him off.

Francesco Rosi, who adapted Carlo Levi's novel, is a director with a strong sense of political awareness. He presents the figure of Carlo Levi as a noble man who was helpless against what he wanted to do for the people of Gagliano, but the local government was not exactly enthusiastic about his meddling in the local affairs. Where he is able to connect with the populace is with his knowledge of medicine. Carlo Levi also painted the people of the region.

Gian Maria Volonte was an actor of quiet intensity. He is in almost all the scenes and he expresses a rage with his eyes. Mr. Volonte was the main reason for watching the film. Since he had collaborated with Rosi before, it seemed logical he would portray Carlo Levi in the movies, something that he does with ease and elegance. Others in the film include Lea Massari, as Luisa, Irene Papas as Giuglia, Alain Cluny as the Barone Nicola Rotondo. A favorable impression is made by Paolo Bonacelli, who appears as the mayor Luigi Magalone, who even when censoring Levi showed a lot of respect for him.

The actual filming was done in Aliano, an ancient hill town, where the real Carlo Levi went to live after the war. Pasqualino DeSantis, the cinematographer, captured in vivid images the picturesque town, the countryside and the people of this lost city. Francesco Rosi made an interesting film about a man of principle that will live forever.

10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Christ stopped in eboli, 9 December 2006

Author: helene kahn from san francisco

this movie did more than any other Italian film i've seen to interest me in italy itself--the people, the land, the culture. it also opened my mind to the intelligence of the uneducated among us--i loved that guilia was so real and right-n and so full of peasant superstition that in no way interfered with her ability to "get it." i have begun to travel in italy and having seen this film i am driven to see the south and visit the carlo levi house and museum. his paintings see into the object, to me, like a quality black and white study which i find the most expressive medium. as soon as i see the faces in the beginning of this film, i am drawn in. i found the melancholy music somewhat sentimental (like the music in truffaut's films) but a necessary comfort.

11 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Reasonably faithful to the book, 30 October 2002
Author: trevor tupper from Wittering, England

I have seen this TV film several times after reading Carlo Levi's book and having been to the Basilicata area in which Levi was exiled.

I consider the film to represent the book's aims which is to show the oppressed state of the peasants in Basilicata, the remoteness and lack of care of central government in Rome and the way in which the fascists could control the local area with very limited support - but of the people who mattered, the mayor, doctor, police. The rest of the populace could be, and were ignored.

A brief nitpicking comment on the title. It comes from something the priest said - on the lines that Christ never reached Aliano but stopped at Eboli some 150 miles distant. Eboli plays no part in Levi's book and the start of the film is wrong in showing him changing trains there, and picking up the stray dog. To get to Matera, where he started his exile he changed in Bari and would not have gone anywhere near Eboli.

1 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Noble effort but not so interesting to be good, 19 June 2011

Author: Rodrigo Amaro (rodrigo882008@hotmail.com) from São Paulo, Brazil

A reason why many people believe films and politics shouldn't been together is the fact most films dealing with social political issues have in their nucleus the use of an abundant and wasted verbosity in which nothing is said, things are half done and the movie becomes other thing than a movie. Sometimes these movies get so preachy about a case that end up sounding idiotic, looks like they selling something to its viewers. And in the end, people who already don't care about the importance of politics in their lives will never understand it how influential this power is. Now, what "Cristo Si è Fermato a Eboli" ("Christ Stopped at Eboli") achieves in its deeper premise is showing how politics have to do with the humblest people of a country and the way it affects them, mostly for the bad things since this is a film about Italy during the Fascist regime in the 1930's and 1940's.

The main character Carlo Levi (Gian Maria Volonté) is an exiled painter and also a medical doctor who helps the peasants of Eboli, a small village to overcome their daily problems by assisting them with some medical treatment (since the local doctors don't care about them properly) and listening to what they have to say. He's there almost like a prisoner, he can't write letters criticizing the government, can't read Montaigne, can't go outside of the city limits but he has some liberties here and there. And despite being marveled by the simplicity of the peasants life and how things work for them this is a man aware of the politics importance and still seems to, quietly, fight the Fascism on its own way, giving some trouble to the city mayor. In one of the most fascinating moments of the film, the poor cause a great commotion in the city hall, urging that Carlo must be their doctor, something he couldn't do it at the moment since the regime wouldn't allow him.

As being an observation to life rather than a dramatic picture, this Francesco Rosi's film is quite interesting when it gets to this social theme but it disappoints by going for too long and showing so less; scenes are quite distractive, long, some dialogs are uninteresting; and after seeing as a whole the movie didn't work as I expected, it was quite meaningless. I like slow-paced films but this is just too much. Volonté's performance is very good, he's very versatile, pleasant; the cast is quite good; the film is beautifully shot and the locations are wonderful but only that can't make a film better. One scene I'll hope to remember in years to come is the Christmas mass with the drunken priest who lost the paper with his nice speech, to later be found with him saying: "This is a miracle from God. I've found my speech." And what it turns out to be his speech? A denounce against the Fascist. It's a very funny memorable scene.

It's not a bad film, it's just a little weak. Worths a view for curiosity, for its themes and some good elements already pointed out in this review. 5/10

16 out of 39 people found the following review useful:
Flawed, especially when compared to its peers., 1 September 2000

Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland

This dutiful, detailed three-and-a-half TV epic describes the exile of dissident intellectual Carlo Levi in a remote village of fascist Italy, blighted by poverty, disease, immirgration and governmental contempt. The film is part-character study, part-socio-historico-political analysis, part careful representation of a people and its place. It is seriously flawed (the people are sentimentalised, the politics are simplistic, the pleasant presentation (music, major actors, cinematography etc.) works against the horrifiic subject matter); but there are nice ironies too, such as the Christlike Levi capable of the fascism he deplores.

The film can be seen in two contexts, as a neo-realist riposte to the prominent anti-realist 70s films about Fascism ('The Spider's Strategem', 'The Conformist', 'Amarcord'), and as a prestigious historical epic on a national theme frequent in the 70s and 80s ('The Travelling Players', 'Heimat'). In both cases it falls short.

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