Gesuzza the Garibaldian Wife

It is a source of great relief that the title of this has been changed. Let's face it, the original 'Gesuzza the Garibaldian Wife' does not exactly trip off the tongue! This is not all that changed for when director Alessandro Blasetti came to re-edit his film in 1951 he very wisely expunged the original ending which featured Fascists marching ahead of Garibaldi veterans in the Mussolini Forum!

At the time a film about the Risorgimento with no star names was unlikely to have punters queueing round the block but eighty-seven years on we have a different perspective.

The conquest of Sicily is seen through the eyes of two peasants sensitively played by non-professionals which in itself makes this a forerunner of Neo-realism. There is a fair smattering of professionals such as Mario Ferrari whose professional status is evident from the moment he appears! Blasetti's depiction of the peasantry is sympathetic although historians have questioned how many were among Garibaldi's 'Thousand' that fought at the Battle of Calatafimi.

This film is now regarded by some as Blasetti's masterpiece although that is debatable. Its Russian-style rapid cutting results in a certain lack of cohesion but it has immediacy, energy and 'heart' which makes it thoroughly absorbing.

Blasetti and his cinematographer Anchise Brizzi have captured brilliantly the strong emotion, high drama, bravery and utter chaos of that exceptional year 1860.

1860 is a minor masterpiece, and it exerted a fundamental influence on Italian made epic films that came afterwards: Visconti's Senso, Bertolucci's similarly titled 1900, even Sergio Leone's westerns, all owe something to director Blasetti's feel for sweeping popular spectacle somewhat underscored and undercut by irony and melancholy ambivalence. The story charts the desperate attempt of a Sicilian partisan to reach Garibaldi's headquarters in Northern Italy, and to petition the great revolutionary to rescue his besieged land. Along the way, the peasant hero encounters a full spectrum of Italian regional types from all social strata, and holding political opinions of every stripe. A long scene on board a train forces many such folk into close proximity, and is memorable for its humor, and densely packed sociological observation: this uneasy coalition of people who barely speak the same language reminds the viewer of Italy's continuing fragility as a nation. After many picaresque episodes, 1860 resolves with an extended and exciting battle. The style of the film is an interesting, eclectic, and fairly successful mix of techniques learned from the likes of Eisenstein (quick cuts, and odd angles abound), Westerns of the Raoul Walsh variety, All Quiet on the Western Front. 1860 is also one of a very small batch of movies from Thirties Italy that are easily available on tape (in the US), and, though somewhat dated, is definitely worth a look.

A partisan journeys to Genoa to get Garibaldi's help liberating Sicily from Bourbon mercenaries.

Made during Mussolini's rule to spur patriotism, it seems similar to the movies Hollywood made in the early 1940's to raise support for America European fight, with sympathetic peasants and cruel mercenaries.

Nicely done, but clearly not a 'cast of thousands' movie.