Chains (film)

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Chains
Catene (1949 film).jpg
Directed by Raffaello Matarazzo
Written by Libero Bovio
Gaspare Di Maio
Nicola Manzari
Aldo De Benedetti
Produced by Goffredo Lombardo
Raffaello Matarazzo
Starring Amedeo Nazzari
Yvonne Sanson
Cinematography Carlo Montuori
Edited by Mario Serandrei
Music by Gino Campese
Production
companies
Labor Film
Titanus
Distributed byTitanus Distribuzione
Release date
29 October 1949
Running time
90 min
Country Italy
LanguageItalian

Catene (internationally released as Chains) is a 1949 Italian melodrama film directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. It had an impressive commercial success, being seen by 6 million people, one in eight Italians of the time, [1] and was followed by a series of six other successful films directed by Matarazzo and featuring the couple Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson. [2] [3] The film was remade in 1974.

Contents

The film's sets were designed by the art director Ottavio Scotti. The film features in Cinema Paradiso . In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." [4]

Plot and outline

A husband kills his wife's ex-boyfriend, who was blackmailing her. He flees to America, but is sent back to Italy to stand trial. The only way he can be set free is if his wife confesses to adultery – so the murder can be considered a crime of passion – but this estranges her from her family. Starring Amedeo Nazzari and actress of Greek origin Yvonne Sanson. Maligned by critics because it did not conform to precepts of neorealism, [3] this did not prevent its unexpected box office success.

Cast

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References

  1. Rossella Riccobono (2011). The Poetics of the Margins: Mapping Europe from the Interstices. Peter Lang, 2010. ISBN   978-3034301589.
  2. Gino Moliterno (2009). The A to Z of Italian Cinema. Scarecrow Press, 2009. ISBN   978-0810868960.
  3. 1 2 Dave Kehr "The Italian Potboiler’s Master Chef", New York Times, 24 June 2011
  4. "Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera". www.corriere.it. Retrieved 2021-03-11.