The title of this film, Christ Stopped at Eboli, has a meaning akin to the phrase "God-forsaken." In the remote Lucania region of Italy, Eboli was the last village reached by the train tracks and, therefore, the people of the region supposed, as far as even Christ would have cared to travel. From Eboli, it was still a long bus ride and an arduous walk (or, for a prestigious visitor, a car ride) to Aliano. Beyond Aliano, the land was parched, dusty, and unsuitable for agriculture, so Aliano was, effectively, the end of the habitable world. Christ stopped at Eboli in another sense as well. Though nominally Christians, the peasants still practiced old superstitions to an extent akin to paganism. It was to that world that the well-educated and talented Carlo Levi was consigned as a political prisoner by Mussolini's Fascist regime and it is into that world that Francesco Rosi takes us in this film from 1979.

Historical Background: Francesco Rosi was born on November 15th, 1922, in Naples, Italy. He studied law for a while and tried his hand as an illustrator and radio reporter before taking up a career in films in the late forties. He learned his craft first as an assistant to Luchino Visconti (working on La Terra Trema) and later with Luciano Emmer, Mario Monicelli, and Michelangelo Antonioni. His first assignment as a director involved completing a film already begun by Goffredo Alessandrini. His first solo directing stint came in the form of La Sfida ("The Challenge") (1958), for which he won a Special Jury Prize at the Film Festival, that year, in Venice. He reached international prominence first with Salvatore Giuliano (1962), which depicted the police inquiry into the death of Italy's famous Sicilian bandit. For that effort, Rosi won the Best Director award from the Berlin Film Festival. Rosi earned more accolades the following year for Hands Over the City (1963), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. With these films, Rosi established a characteristic style, described as neo-documentary, harkening back to the tradition of the neo-realists of the forties. His themes were social and political and left-leaning in orientation. His sympathies, as a humanist, lay with peasants and laborers, as he exposed examples of the social ills and political corruption rampant in Italy. Most of his films are set in the southern part of Italy, which was more rural, less developed, and more poverty-ridden, at the time, than the industrialized northern part of the country. The economic gap between northern and southern Italy has narrowed since the time when Rosi made most of his major films.

In 1972, Rosi won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with The Mattei Affair, which, unfortunately, is not even in print in the U.S. Christ Stopped in Eboli (1979) won both the Donitello Award in Italy and the Best Foreign Film award from the British Academy Awards (received in 1983). Although Rosi changed his style in the eighties, adopting a form formalistic approach, he remained the social crusader throughout his career. Rosi has been somewhat neglected in America. Only a half-dozen of his twenty-five films are even listed in the Epinions database. There is a review for Rosi's 1996 film The Truce that is among the most passionate reviews I've ever read at Epinions (see The Truce), though that reviewer is no longer active at the site.

The story of Christ Stopped at Eboli is based on a book written by Carlo Levi (1902-1975) about his own personal experience with political exile in the small, remote, primitive village of Aliano. Levi was an anti-fascist intellectual, a painter, journalist, and activist, all on top of having been trained as a physician. Levi came from a family that was Jewish and Socialist. One of his uncles, in fact, was a leading figure in the Italian Socialist Party. Levi was a liberal and contributed articles to the review published by his friend Piero Gobetti, mostly pertaining to avant-garde arts. Socialism, as an ideal, had been repeatedly corrupted in Europe in the twenties and thirties. Three of the most despotic regimes in Europe had ostensibly arisen out of socialist origins. Stalin held sway in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Hitler's Nazis were the "National Socialist Party." In Italy, Mussolini had grown up as the son of a socialist and had belonged to the left wing of the Italian Socialist Party, before turning to Fascism. It was a tough time in history to be a genuine socialist and to observe all of these aberrant examples of socialism run amok.

Mussolini's brand of Fascism would seem downright comical today were its consequences not so terribly tragic. There was something of the ridiculous in Mussolini's notion of reviving the glory of ancient Rome. There was also the ludicrous claim that Marconi had invented a secret ray that would destroy the British Navy, should they try to thwart Italy's Abyssinia initiative. There was also the proud trumpeting of grand victories in Abyssinia, when, in reality, the ineffective Italian military had barely been able to defeat a barefoot Ethiopian army equipped with only rifles. On the other hand, there was no humor whatsoever in Mussolini's alliances with Hitler and Franco, the murder of political opponents by the brown-shirts, or the rampant anti-Semitism that propelled Italy toward ultimate devastation.

The Story: Carlo Levi (Gian Maria Volonté) was arrested in 1934 for his antifascist activities. He was released but rearrested in 1936. On the second occasion, in accord with the practice of the time (called confido), he was exiled to an isolated, impoverished village in the region of Lucania (now called Basilicata). There, he had to sign in daily with the police, as well as having his mail and reading materials censored by the mayor, Don Luigi Magalone (Paolo Bonacelli). He was forbidden contact with the dozen or so other political exiles housed in the same village.

Levi occupied himself with reading, painting, and observing the culture of the remote village. For the well-educated and sophisticated Levi, it was like being thrown back into another century. The locals were poorly educated and quite superstitious in their thinking. Although there were local physicians, the quality of the medical practice was extremely shabby. Despite having had no experience actually practicing medicine, Levi was a good deal more qualified as a physician, simply by dint of his training, than were the local quacks. That point was not lost on his neighbors, who were soon imploring Levi to help them with their ailments. A visit from his sister, Luisa (Lea Massari), a practicing physician herself, solidified his desire to help his neighbors out, but Levi was forbidden by the provisions of his confido from practicing medicine. It was only after the Mayor's daughter took ill that the Mayor, at the insistence of his wife, relented and thought it best to overlook that particular restriction. A move into a small house and the services of a housekeeper, Giulia Venere (Irene Papas), provided Levi with space for both a studio and a small clinical practice. Levi gradually became a valued and integrated member of the dismal little community. The film is a lovely ethnographic depiction of the people of Aliano, who eked out a meager existence in a stark environment. In 1939, Levi was released from his confinement as part of the "victory celebration" after the Italian annexation of Ethiopia.

Although the film ends with Levi's release in 1939, readers may be interested in a postscript. Levi briefly left Italy for France and then America, but returned to Italy in 1943. When he recommenced his antifascist activities, he was again arrested in 1943 and held until 1945. Then, when he was released, he had to hide from the retreating Nazis to evade deportation to one of the death camps. During that period of hiding, Levi wrote Christ Stopped in Eboli. When Levi died in 1975, he was buried at Aliano.

Themes: Rosi uses this film to skillfully contrast the simple life of the peasants of Aliano with the urbanized and industrialized north and Rome's insane international ambitions. In the austere terrain of Aliano, life centers on food production and survival, rather than aspirations of empire. Rome's influence is never felt as a positive in Aliano. They are aware of Rome only when the tax collector shows up to confiscate a share of their produce or livestock and when their sons are conscripted into military service. Although their way of life is humble and anachronistic, it rests closer to the core issues of human existence than does Mussolini's dream of renewing the old glories of Imperial Rome, glittering on the seven hills. Aliano also rests on a hill, but their hill is gradually slipping away and turning to dust. By their remoteness, the people of Aliano aptly illustrate the absurdity and irrelevancy of Fascism and, more generally, The State.

Into this primordial environment, lost in time, Levi arrives to function, as he puts, as a kind of clumsy observer. With the eye of an artist and the understanding of an educated man, he perceives all the strange marvels of the mystical approach to life of these peasants, which they, as natives, take for granted. He smiles at their stories of love potions, angels guarding the doors, and coins that draw pain from their bodies, but he also grows to love and respect their way of life, especially when he realizes that they ultimately have no more use for The State than does he. At first bored and restive, Levi finds renewed purpose in life through his ability to contribute to the healthcare of these needy people. It is often said that the secret to surviving in confinement lies in finding something productive to do.

Production Values: This film nicely combines political commentary with compassionate, ethnographic observation of a distinctive way of life, at what amounts to a last outpost of civilization. Rosi strikes the perfect balance between these two activities. He scores his points for his left-leaning political views, but complements that sociopolitical agenda with a leisurely and up-beat portrait of rural life.

The photography is gritty, at times, but that's in keeping with the austere topography of the Aliano environment and the poverty of its people. The cinematography is never intrusive or heavy-handed. Rosi lets the images speak for themselves rather than adding a lot of symbolic or sentimental emphasis.

Gian Maria Volonté, as Carlo Levi, pretty much carries the film with his subtle and intelligent expressiveness. His other works includes A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), where he was terrific, and Sacco and Vanzetti (1971). Paolo Bonacelli, who plays the mayor, Don Luigi Magalone, was also in Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), Midnight Express (1978), and Night on Earth (1992). Alain Cuny has a brief scene as Barone Nicola Rotunno, an aristocrat who comes around just long enough to collect rent. Cuny also appeared in such films as La Dolce Vita (1960), Fellini Satyricon (1969), and Camile Claudel (1988). Lea Massari has a brief part as Levi's sister, Luisa. Readers may remember her from such films as L’Avventura (1960) and Murmur of the Heart (1971). The Swiss actor François Simon gives a comic performance as the often tipsy priest, Don Traiella. He was son of the great French comic actor Michel Simon, who I raved about elsewhere for his work in Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) and L’Atalante (1934). The best performance, however, after Volonte's, belongs to Irene Papas, as the earthy housekeeper, Giulia Venere, who had weathered seventeen pregnancies, by roughly the same number of men. Papas is best known for her roles in The Guns of Navarone (1961), Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Anne of a Thousand Days (1969). That's a lot of star-power for one film, but it's really only Volonté who gets to show what he's got to full effect.

Bottom-Line: The original version of this film was a 228-minute television release. It was cut to 145-minutes for the Italian theatrical version and chopped again to 120-minutes for its first American release. Happily, the Facets Video DVD provides the 145-minute Italian theatrical version. There's a nice little 12-page booklet with the DVD but no extras on the DVD itself. Christ Stopped at Eboli is in Italian with English subtitles. I found it quite engrossing. There's next to no action, however, so you need to have a taste for leisurely ethnographic portraits to enjoy this offering. I highly recommend it if your tastes run in that direction. Avoid Ebola like the plague, by all means, but give Eboli a try.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Italy:

Amarcord
L’Avventura
The Bicycle Thief
Cinema Paradiso
The Conformist
Death in Venice
Divorce Italian Style
The Dreamers
Eclipse
8 ½
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
General della Rovere
The Last Emperor
The Leopard
Life is Beautiful
Malèna
Mamma Roma
Miracle in Milan
The Night of the Shooting Stars
Nights of Cabiria
La Notte
Padre Padrone
Il Postino
Rocco and His Brothers
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Shoeshine
The Son’s Room
The Spider's Stratagem
Star Maker
Swept Away
Teorema
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Umberto D.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older