Whenever I see La Paura I think of it as a companion piece to Eyes Wide Shut, or maybe it is the other way around. Adultery makes both films tick but in different ways. I think Phillip French was right on the money when he pointed out a Wizard of Oz thing in Kubrick's last work. Like Dorothy, Tom and Nicole go through fantasies and nightmares and at the end Dorothy's reassuring childish motto "there's no place like home" is ironically updated to the adult circumstantial adage "there's no sex like marital sex". Kubrick's take is intellectual, he never leaves the world of ideas to touch the ground. He taunts the audience first with an erotic movie and then with a thriller and refuses to deliver either of them. He was married to his third wife for 40 years, until he died. Rossellini was still married to Ingrid Bergman when he directed La Paura; they had been adulterous lovers and their infidelity widely criticized La Paura is a tale, a noirish one. The noir intrigue is solved and the tale has a happy ending. The city is noir; the country is tale, the territory where childhood is possible. The transition is operated in the most regular way: by car, a lo
ng-held
shot take
n from the f
ront of the car
as it rides
into the road
, as if we
were en
tering a
different
dimensi
on. Irene (Berg
man) starts th
e movie: we jus
t see a dark
city lands
cape bu
t her voice-
over na
rration tells u
s of her
angst and
informs us
that the story
is a flas
hback, hers.
Bergman&#
39;s be
en cheatin
g on he
r husband. At
first gu
ilt is just psy
chologica
l torture but s
oon expands int
o econo
mic blackma
il and then
grows i
nto somethin
g else. Fr
om begi
nning to end
the movie foc
uses on what Be
rgman f
eels, eve
ry other
character is t
here to mak
e her feel
something.
Only wh
en the director
gives away t
he plot before
the ma
in charac
ter can fi
nd out does he
want us to feel
someth
ing Bergm
an still
can&#39
;t. When she fi
nds out, we h
ave already e
xperienced
the warped mec
hanics of the s
ituation
and we
may focus onc
e again on
the emoti
onal impact it
has on
Bergman&
#39;s Irene. In
La Paura trea
sons are
not imagin
ed but real,
nightm
ares are de
liberate
and the couple&
amp;#39;s venom
suppurates in
bitter
ways. Needle
ss to say,
Ingrid has an
other of her
rough ride
s in the m
ovies but
Rossellini does
n't d
are put
her aw
ay as he
did in Europa
51, nor
does he ab
andon her to
the inscruta
ble impass
ivity of n
ature (
Stromboli). Hi
s gift is les
s transcendent
and fragile th
an the con
clusion of Viag
gio in Ital
ia. He just g
ives his
wife as much
of a fairy
tale ending
as a real wo
man can ha
ve, a human
landscape whe
re she can
finally feel at
home. Back t
o the cou
ntry, a half
lit inte
rior scene whe
re shadow
s suggest
the comf
ort of sl
eep. After
all, it&a
mp;#39;s th
e "
fairy godmoth
er&quo
t; who speak
s the last
words in th
e movie.　　
Whenever
I see La Pau
ra I think o
f it as a comp
anion piece t
o Eyes Wide S
hut, or may
be it is th
e o