Il generale della Rovere

One of the most significant performances in De Sica’s lengthy acting career is his portrayal of opportunistic crook Emanuele Bardone. In 1944, during the German occupation, he defrauds his compatriots by accepting money to help look for their missing relatives who have been arrested or taken to Germany for forced labor. But when SS unit leader Müller forces him to pretend to be a partisan general in prison in order to spy on his fellow prisoners, Bardone feels profoundly morally conflicted. Rossellini’s war drama, which harks back to his neorealist beginnings, received the Golden Lion in Venice. (hjf)