Journey to Italy

An English couple who go to Naples to sell an inherited house spend their first long stretch of time together there. Things they have not discussed for years come out. The film tells the separation through excursions rather than an event: a museum, an excavation, a volcano. The narrative leaves her among objects and the dead and shows through those encounters how empty the marriage is. The ending is contested and deliberately abrupt. Roberto Rossellini directed, with Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. It is often cited as a turning point for the European cinema that followed. Who it's for: those curious about the beginning of modern cinema and anyone who likes slow relationship drama. Who it's not for: viewers wanting incident; the film is almost entirely sightseeing.