An excellent movie. There is nothing more beautiful than having two people loving each other with silence and pain.
I watched the 2004 version which was absolutely wonderful. I noticed that 1942 version has (Werner fiancee) as one of the cast. Who was she?
His fiancée appears briefly in a flashback while he's talking to the uncle and niece. It shows them frolicking in a wood, then she grabs an insect that's bitten her and tortures it by pulling off its legs. Werner is so appalled by her cruelty that he breaks off the engagement.
shareAn excellent movie.As good as anything that I have seen in a long while. And I am talking about the 1949 version.
"And to think that it was Melville's debut feature, and shot under 'unusual' circumstances at that."
Certainly the detachment and heavy stylization are reflective of his later works, but the constant streams of monologue and narration from the protagonist seemed to be stuff he dropped. He really learned to use silence, especially in the late 1960's.
And to answer the O.P., he had a fiance back in Germany but he dumped her when she tortured an insect that bit her.
They're funny people, the Italians. Culture really isn't their thing.share
Was it really his fiance though? He says something along the lines of lots of other people hanging around, which even back then would be strange for someone engaged to be married?
shareThe girl was "almost" his fiancee. I got the impression that Werner was going to ask for her hand in marriage but found her apparent delight in torturing insects so repulsive that he changed his mind. He said something to the effect of "luckily she had many other suitors" to his hosts, and then changed the subject.
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