rh222

The Germans started a (second) war that resulted in millions of casualties, including innocent women and children throughout Europe, including London, Russia, France, Poland, forced workers and millions in concentration camps. Hitler, the Nazis and their evil regime were wholeheartedly supported by the vast majority of the German civilian population. Only a sick person could harbor any sympathy for German survivors of that war. They are very fortunate that they were not subjected to atomic weapons as Japan was. I am aware that the German populace was destitute after the war. My grandfather was a military governor in the US Army in Germany and I have heard the stories first hand and seen his reports. They are not the garbage of an Italian film maker with obvious biases. Whatever the Germans suffered after the war they brought on themselves and then some. They were incredibly fortunate to have received American aide through the Marshall Plan that they very definitely did not deserve.

Europa 1951, another horrible Rosselini movie. Why is this garbage shown during prime time? In this case we have Ingrid Bergman no longer in shape and showing she had lost whatever ability she once had as an actress. The script was awful, and perhaps that is a major reason for Bergman's poor performance. Then we have one of the worst dubbing jobs ever. Painful to watch/listen to. Right down there with Godzilla. The inescapable conclusion is that the Italian film industry, such as it was, was attempting to make a movie that was comparable to Hollywood films, and failed miserably.

These Rossellini films are the worst I've every seen on TCM. The first one portrays ALL the Italians as freedom fighters with no mention of the fact that that country was allied with Hitler! The second is supposed to make us feel sorry for the poor widows and orphans in Italy who didn't have enough to eat after the War when it was they who started the War along with the Germans and Japanese. They brought the consequences on themselves. Amazingly, there was no mention in either film of that fellow named Mussolini and the throngs of Italians, including Romans, who loved and supported him. Just like after the Nazis fell everyone in Germany claimed they had not been a Nazi. These Rossellini movies are nothing but self serving, revisionist crap, and it should have been pointed out in the introductions to both of them.