A ray of sunshine
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A ray of sunshine |
| Country of production | Italy , Germany |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1996 |
| length | 57 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg Brintrup |
| script | Georg Brintrup |
| production | José Montes-Baquer Brintrup Film Production WDR HR RAI |
| music | Renzo Rossellini |
| camera | Luigi Verga Eva Piccoli |
| cut | Jorge Alvis |
| occupation | |
| |
A ray of sunshine (Renzo and Roberto Rossellini - Two Brothers on the Way to the Unknown) is a German-Italian film essay by Georg Brintrup from 1996.
action
Two brothers go their way in life together. The older one, Roberto Rossellini , recreates reality in the film ( Italian neorealism ). The younger, Renzo Rossellini , comments on this film reality musically. At a ripe old age, both brothers become aware of the inadequacy of their art and draw their conclusions from this knowledge - each in their own way.
Renzo grows up as Roberto's younger brother: “Roberto had a toy and it was me. And in him I had a comrade and despot. ”The two are inseparable, Roberto as the tyrant and Renzo as his victim. While Roberto develops into a charming, aggressive, and strong-willed young man, Renzo remains calm, indulgent, and easy to please.
The two brothers came into contact with music and film in Rome in the 1910s through their grandfather . Every Sunday they visit a cinema with him, where the maestro Sallustio accompanies adventure films with music - and not with the usual silent film music, but by suggesting Debussy influences or Stravinsky rhythmic tricks on the piano. Sallustio becomes Renzo's first music teacher. The boy began to compose and published his first piano piece at the age of seventeen with the famous Italian music publisher Ricordi : "La fontana ammalata" (The sick fountain). The composers Ottorino Respighi and Pietro Mascagni , who were friends with the brothers' father, also influenced Renzo Rossellini's musical style.
After the death of his father, Renzo devoted himself to the composition of chamber music and symphonies and taught in state conservatories, while Roberto went to film "out of revenge and ambitious self-love". He had fallen in love with a young, already famous film actress, who made a successful film and then married her director. Renzo, too, now goes to film and takes up the lucrative profession of film music composer.
Both brothers worked on a documentary trilogy for the film department of the Italian Navy in the first 1940s . While the American and European film music of those years was still influenced by the passionate romanticism of the 19th century , which is supposed to arouse sentimental feelings in the audience, the two brothers - Renzo in his music and Roberto in his pictures - find no place for illusions.
Finally, in 1943, they made their breakthrough with the film Rome, Open City . As if by a miracle, Italian cinema has risen from the ruins of the war. The two brothers show the world the unvarnished tragedy of war and the true face of the Italians. Roberto is named the inventor of Italian neorealism. Both brothers, however, doubt this abstract definition because it limits the freedom of their artistic expression instead of expanding it. "In order to rediscover people, you have to be humble, you have to see them as they are and not as one would like to see them because of predetermined ideologies."
The two brothers continue their collaboration for many more films. By mutual agreement, they try to combine image and music in the most effective way possible. There is no longer any tyrant or victim. Often the films are made because of a single episode, a decisive key scene, or a noise. In the film L'amore (1948), for example, it is tin cans that prompt the Rossellinis to coordinate music and noise. From the music point of view, this meant: leaving air and space for the noise. Music turns into noises, or noises dissolve into music as if they were dissonances. For the two brothers it is important that an authentic sound is always rated more strongly in the film than a possible musical imitation of this sound. Just as music for a few instruments is often more appropriate to the cinematic cause than the music of huge orchestras.
Hollywood is in a crisis like no other. The greatest film actress of the time, Ingrid Bergman , loves Rossellini's work, comes to Italy, becomes part of the Rossellini family and makes films that are produced entirely by Roberto without the help of studios and that have worldwide success. No wonder: Hollywood has a great interest in dragging Roberto's reputation into the mud.
After years of fruitful collaboration, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto split up. Renzo continues to compose music for his brother's films until one day he calls him over, as always in the difficult moments of her life. Roberto has decided not to make any more movies. If he were to stand behind a film camera again, it would not be to make commercial films or to make art, but only to learn something himself and to free people from their ignorance. It is important to inform, to teach, but not to educate. The film did not fulfill its mission to be the art of the 20th century .
From now on Roberto made documentaries and television films and Renzo composed operas. Both brothers understand at the end of their lives that the world is very different from what they thought it was and for which each of them was called to contribute. They realize that this world is completely unknown to them because it arose outside of them, without their knowledge, while they were busy working through and creating what they believed to be their world.
background
The musician's biography is staged in the form of an essay film and “reconstructs an authentic picture of Italian neorealism”. The reconstruction of Renzo and Roberto Rossellini's vitae is based on the autobiographical writings of both brothers and conversations the director had with Renzo Rossellini's wife Anita.
Film music
The soundtrack contains the music from the following films.
| No. | Movie | Director | year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Il signor Max | Mario Camerini | 1937 |
| 2. | Un pilota ritorna | Roberto Rossellini | 1942 |
| 3. | Rome, open city | Roberto Rossellini | 1945 |
| 4th | Paisà | Roberto Rossellini | 1946 |
| 5. | Germany in year zero | Roberto Rossellini | 1948 |
| 6th | Amore | Roberto Rossellini | 1948 |
| 7th | Stromboli | Roberto Rossellini | 1950 |
| 8th. | Europe '51 | Roberto Rossellini | 1952 |
| 9. | Trip in Italy | Roberto Rossellini | 1953 |
| 10. | fear | Roberto Rossellini | 1954 |
| 11. | The fearless rebel | Roberto Rossellini | 1961 |
There is also a selection from the musical works of Renzo Rossellini, some of which were newly recorded for the film. The piece "La fontana ammalata" is played by the Giovani Musicisti Italiani under the direction of Federico Romano Capalbi:
| No. | Music track | translation | year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Stati d'Animo | Emotional states | 1952 |
| 2. | Vangelo minimo | Minimal gospel | 1957 |
| 3. | Roma cristiana | Christian Rome | 1940 |
| 4th | La fontana malata | The sick well | 1925 |
| 5. | Stampe della vecchia Roma | Screen prints from ancient Rome | 1937 |
| 6th | Diagram No. 1 | graph no.1 | 1953 |
| 7th | La Guerra | The war - lyric opera | 1956 |
distribution
A ray of sunshine was broadcast for the first time on January 5, 1997 on WDR . Immediately afterwards it was shown in the original Italian version on RAI . This was followed by broadcasts in HR and 3sat . French distributor Point du Jour International took over the film and sold it in a dozen countries from Canada to Australia. In August 2002 the film was shown on 3Sat together with two other music films by Georg Brintrup ( Luna Rossa - Red Moon over Naples and Poemi Asolani ). The last broadcast on German television was at EinsFestival on March 26, 2006.
Web links
- A ray of sunshine in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Presentation of the film
Individual evidence
- ^ Renzo Rossellini: Addio del passato (Farewell to the Past), Rizzoli Editore, Milano 1968
- ^ A b Renzo Rossellini: Vita di Roberto (Roberto's life), self-published, chapter III, page 10 and chapter IV, page 16
- ↑ 3Sat: Ein Sonnenstrahl, on the broadcast of three music films by Georg Brintrup, August 11, 2002
- ^ Renzo Rossellini: Pagine di un musicista (The Pages of a Musician), Cappelli Editore, 1963
- ^ Renzo Rossellini: Addio del passato (Farewell to the Past), Rizzoli Editore, Milano 1968
- ↑ Renzo Rossellini: polémica musicale (Musical dispute), Ricordi Editore, Milano 1957