Stromboli (Stromboli terra di Dio). Roberto Rossellini, 1950.
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Edition screened: Italian Language version on Criterion Blu-ray #673 Stromboli, included in 3-Blu-ray set #672, 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman released 2013. English language with Italian dub and English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.
Summary: Killing of a rabbit; fishing gore.
Details:
1) At 57:45 a caged ferret is set loose beside a small unsuspecting rabbit. The rabbit is attacked and killed through 58:13. Appropriately, the man responsible has repulsed the woman he was attempting to impress.
2) After a long wind-up showing fishermen arranging their boats and nets, an unbelievably ‘bountiful’ harvesting of huge tuna begins at 1:12:25 and runs through 1:14:55. Uncountable enormous fish are dragged out of the water with grappling hooks and pulled into the boats. It is very alarming to watch, with the multiple hooks digging deeply into the fish’s flesh and blood running out of their gills.
Italian Neorealism is complicated and I am no expert. The rabbit/ferret scene and especially the long gory tuna haul are part of the earthy realism that combines with existential tensions to create works that are rooted in the gritty and speak to the ethereal. But damn it Roberto! There are so many ways to display the profound whatever of mankind. Animal cruelty is an easy cop-out, and beneath the creativity of a great director.
The Stromboli BD also contains the original 106-minute English-language version of the film, along with the 1998 documentary Rossellini Under the Volcano which returns to the island of Stromboli fifty years after the making of the film.
