Documentary Movie Reviews
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My Voyage to Italy (1999)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
6/25
6/25:
I struggled with what rating to give for My Voyage to Italy before settling on '6' when it should've
been '8'.
Although I appreciate what Martin Scorsese did and I am interested in seeing a French and a Russian equivalents,
the documentary is way too long: four hours and six minutes. That's because some of the clips from various
Italian movies kept going on and on to the point of spoiling the story for me. There's barely much analysis
from Martin Scorsese at the same time.
Sometimes, it felt like I was watching an entire film instead of the documentary. I wonder why Martin Scorsese
decided to stop at 1963 when there's obviously more left during the 60's with absolutely zero mention
of La ciociara which won Sophia Loren the Oscar for Best Actress. If the topic is supposed to be
Italian neorealism, it really ended in 1954 with Journey to Italy; Federico Fellini's films for the
most part don't qualify.
To remedy the problem, Martin Scorsese should've limited the total time of three minutes per film. I just wanted to
sample as much as I could to see if there was anything interesting. Afterwards, I've decided on Roberto
Rossellini's works with Ingrid Bergman only because I hadn't seen them. As for the rest, I simply say, "Thanks,
but no thanks."
To be honest with you, I find Italian cinema extremely overrated because these films are often slow, boring,
and long, being all about images and abstract ideas. Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, and Michelangelo
Antonioni....absolutely not. I don't like their stuff. Boring, boring, boring! That's why they are largely
forgotten by the public today. Let me put this another way: if Martin Scorsese loved them so much, then why
didn't he make something similar? The answer is: they have no commercial value. To see what I mean, check out
Zabriskie Point and
Professione: reporter.
All in all, it was a good idea to make My Voyage to Italy, but the execution has been poor.