Fear

Irene Wagner is the wife of a prominent German scientist. She has kept an affair from her husband for years and believes she is doing it to protect the marriage. Then her lover's former partner appears and the blackmail begins. Every payment brings the next demand. Irene's fear turns from the affair being discovered into the question of how long her husband has known. Roberto Rossellini adapted Stefan Zweig's 1925 novella of the same name. He shot in Munich and prepared separate English and German versions. Rossellini said he used the project to look at Germany's moral as well as material reconstruction, ten years after making Germany, Year Zero. Ingrid Bergman plays Irene. This was the fifth and last film she and Rossellini made together. Who it's for: Viewers who like the Rossellini and Bergman partnership, psychological drama built on guilt, and postwar European cinema. Who it's not for: The narrative sits close to melodrama and the ending is rushed. Anyone expecting Rossellini's neorealist work will not find it here.