"Little old-fashioned world" was a tremendous success when it was released in Fascist Italy in 1941. It is said that it was as huge in Italy as "Gone With The Wind" in America. It also started the career of Alida Valli (who starred years later in "The third man" and in Visconti's "Senso")as a movie star.
Having said that, very little of this past glory has stood the test of time. What remains today is some incredible and pompous period film, dull and unimaginative in spite of Valli's beauty and sensibility. Based on a novel that sets a melodramatic romance against a backdrop of major historical events, the story is set in the nineteenth century, during the Risorgimento era. Cut off by his family for marrying below his station, a young nobleman faces war fighting the Austrians and a different kind of war with a vengeful grandmother and neglected wife. Some people regard this film as a forerunner of Italian neorealism. They are dead wrong. "Piccolo mondo antico" reminds one constantly of heavy adaptations of novels as they were made in the 1930s. An established writer before turning to film director, Soldati is far from being Visconti. Let's do him justice by reading more of his novels and reviews.
Having said that, very little of this past glory has stood the test of time. What remains today is some incredible and pompous period film, dull and unimaginative in spite of Valli's beauty and sensibility. Based on a novel that sets a melodramatic romance against a backdrop of major historical events, the story is set in the nineteenth century, during the Risorgimento era. Cut off by his family for marrying below his station, a young nobleman faces war fighting the Austrians and a different kind of war with a vengeful grandmother and neglected wife. Some people regard this film as a forerunner of Italian neorealism. They are dead wrong. "Piccolo mondo antico" reminds one constantly of heavy adaptations of novels as they were made in the 1930s. An established writer before turning to film director, Soldati is far from being Visconti. Let's do him justice by reading more of his novels and reviews.