Europe '51 / Europa '51 (1952) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Roberto Rossellini
Writers: Roberto Rossellini (story), Sandro De Feo, Mario Pannunzio
Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini

Ingrid Bergman plays a wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite racked by guilt over the shocking death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity. The intense, often overlooked Europe ’51 was, according to Rossellini, a retelling of his own The Flowers of St. Francis from a female perspective. This unabashedly political but sensitively conducted investigation of modern sainthood was the director’s favorite of his films.

Extras:
- New 2K digital restoration of the English-language version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New high-definition digital restoration of the Italian-language version, Europa ’51, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Introduction by director Roberto Rossellini
- New interview with film critic Adriano Aprà
- New interview with film historian Elena Dagrada on the different versions of the film



3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman:
In the late 1940s, the incandescent Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman found herself so stirred by the revolutionary neorealist films of Roberto Rossellini that she sent the director a letter, introducing herself and offering her talents. The resulting collaboration produced a series of films that are works of both sociopolitical concern and metaphysical melodrama, each starring Bergman as a woman experiencing physical dislocation and psychic torment in postwar Italy. It also famously led to a scandalous affair and eventual marriage between filmmaker and star, and the focus on their personal lives in the press unfortunately overshadowed the extraordinary films they made together. Stromboli, Europe ’51, and Journey to Italy are intensely moving portraits that reveal the director at his most emotional and the glamorous actress at her most anguished, and that capture them and the world around them in transition.