Malinconico autunno

Raffaello Matarazzo, precursor of Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, was the specialist in Italy for undauntingly exposing deep human problems of justice and relationships and solving them, in one way or another, either by hopelessly drastic tragedy or by constructive indefatigable struggle. I will not divulge which of these two ways he chooses to follow here, but things really look seriously bad as the crisis is exacerbated by villainy and gunfire. The women as usual in Matarazzo's films are impressingly outstanding, especially Yvonne Sanson here much more mature than in her previous films with Matarazzo and Nazzari and a full blown woman of the same kind of beauty as Sofia Loren and Irene Papas, but as usual in Matarazzo's films, the children take the prize. The acting and direction of this film is quite astounding in high dramatic tension and excellence, and Matarazzo also succeeds well in building up this very critical drama to almost unendurable heights of insufferable conditions. The music is striking as well, and although a theme of much delicate heartbreaks, the film never falls to bathos of sentimentality. If Matarazzo is the Douglas Sirk of Italy, he is far ahead of Sirk in realism, credibility and humanism.