Benghazi (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Benghazi
Country of production Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 1942
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Augusto Genina
script Augusto Genina
Ugo Betti
Alessandro De Stefani
Edoardo Anton
production Renato Bossoli
Carlo Bossoli
Alberto Bargelesi
music Antonio Veretti
camera Aldo Tonti
cut Fernando Tropea
occupation

Benghazi is an Italian war and propaganda film by Augusto Genina , which was shot in honor of the Italian-German brotherhood in arms in North Africa in 1942 and was intended to underline the Italian colonial claims south of the Mediterranean. The main role is played by Fosco Giachetti . His wife played the Hungarian Maria von Tasnady . The planned German premiere title was Benghazi - The Fate of a City , but this film was never released in the Reich (see below under “Interesting facts”).

Benghazi at the time of Italian rule

action

North Africa 1941. At the beginning of the year, the Libyan port city of Benghazi , which was run as a colony by Italy, was taken by the British, Italy's war opponent. The Italian defenders, among them the brave captain Enrico Berti, who has important documents with him, have no chance against the hostile superiority. Berti urges his Hungarian wife Carla to leave the city in a truck together with their four-year-old son Sandro. While the Trek is on its way, British bombers attack it, killing Sandro. Enrico Berti himself loses an arm in another British attack. In a hospital he receives a visit from his wife, who, out of mercy, initially withholds the death of their child.

The British occupiers, shown as mostly drunk and cruel, turn out to be tough, relentless, and heartless occupiers. The city's residents are starving because the British are destroying the harvest. After his recovery, Berti is sent to a British prisoner-of-war camp. His compatriot and comrade Filippo Colleoni, who was also captured, used himself as an interpreter for the British occupiers. In truth, however, he is an Italian staff officer who, in the role of translator, tries to find out something about the further British war plans in North Africa. Colleoni has a romance with the young Giuliana. In the meantime, Enrico Berti manages to escape captivity and secretly returns to Benghazi to his wife Carla. There he has to learn from her the bitter truth about the death of the beloved ancestor.

In the meantime the English are hunting down all Italians in uniform they can get hold of. One of them, an older soldier who has already been discharged from service, finds shelter in a brothel with Maria, who all just call "Fanny". She hides him from the British when they search everything. In the meantime, Enrico has come across Filippo Colleoni, who is almost lynched by the compatriots who persist here because they suspect him of being a collaborator and spy for the English because of his interpreting work. Berto and Colleoni team up to harm the British. The German alliance partner in the form of the Africa Corps is approaching Benghazi, and the British are laying mines everywhere before they leave the city, thereby seriously endangering the Italian civilian population. On the occasion of the withdrawal of British troops, Italian citizens rush to the streets to receive Italian and German troops and wave the flags of both states. The city's Italian authorities solemnly announce that Benghazi has been liberated and returned to mainland Italy.

Production notes

Benghazi was written shortly after the first Italian-German liberation attack against the British and Australians in 1941 and was premiered on September 5, 1942.

The film structures are by Salvo D'Angelo and Cesare Baietti. Anna Maria Feo designed the costumes. Primo Zeglio was the first assistant director.

Awards

Due to its outstanding alliance-specific importance within a European-fascist cooperation, the film was awarded the Coppa Mussolini as “best Italian film” at the Venice Film Festival in 1942 . Leading actor Fosco Giachetti also received a film award there, the Volpi Cup, for best leading actor.

useful information

A German dubbed version of this film was also completed in March / April 1943, which was to be released in German cinemas that same year under the title Benghazi - The Fate of a City . But the course of the war on the African front had meanwhile made the premise shown in the film obsolete: the German Africa Corps had to surrender to the overwhelming British superiority on May 12 and 13, 1943. A German premiere was thus unnecessary. Even after the war, the film never ran in Germany.

Dubbed version

The version, which was never used, was made by Lüdtke & Rohnstein, Berlin. Company boss Konrad P. Rohnstein directed the dialogue, Georg Rothkegel wrote the dialogue book.

role actor Voice actor
Captain Enrico Berti Fosco Giachetti Paul Klinger
Carla Berti Mary of Tasnady Victoria of Ballasko
Filippo Colleoni Amedeo Nazzari Carl-Heinz Schroth
Giuliana Vivi Gioi Lu Neatly
Mayor of Benghazi Guido Notary Werner Schott
Dr. Malpini Leo Garavaglia Alfred Haase
Fanny Laura Redi Gerda Maria Terno
Antonio Fedele Gentile Peter Mosbacher
mother Amelia Bissi Margarete Kupfer
Captain Marchi Carlo Duse Herbert Gernot

criticism

Francesco Pasinetti wrote in the Italian magazine Cinema on September 25, 1942 “The manufacturing company made all the means available to the director, regardless of costs. An entire neighborhood of Benghazi has been recreated in Cinecittà, with luxurious interiors and enormous materials for the outdoor sets. (...) Instead of getting the performers off the street, Genina selected his performers from a large group of professional actors and performed them with a mastery that is his own ... ”

Kay Wenigers Das Großer Personenlexikon der Film wrote in Augusto Genina's biography: "With his last work during the Mussolini era," Benghazi ", the director celebrated Italy's (in reality quite pathetic) conquest and military policy in North Africa."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cinema, September 25, 1942 issue
  2. ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 3, p. 222. Berlin 2001

Web links