Post by Eλευθερί on May 7, 2021 0:39:11 GMT
Peter Finch, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale
The story tells of an Italian general, Umberto Nobile, who is haunted by ghosts of crewmen who died during a failed attempt to be the first to land an airship at the North Pole in 1928.
The cinematography and music (Italian version) of this film are riveting—crashing icebergs, polar bears, vast stark stretches of white interrupted only by the shock of a red tent. The main theme of the score may be one of Ennio Morricone's most beautiful.
Western critics don't seem to have liked this film. I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that it was a joint Soviet-Italian production during the Cold War.
Sean Connery takes first billing in the ads, but it's really Peter Finch's film. Connery's character doesn't start to figure in the story in any meaningful way until more than an hour in, and he has relatively little screentime overall. Claudia Cardinale is the only woman in the film, and her part seems to have been added in almost as an afterthought.
The story tells of an Italian general, Umberto Nobile, who is haunted by ghosts of crewmen who died during a failed attempt to be the first to land an airship at the North Pole in 1928.
The cinematography and music (Italian version) of this film are riveting—crashing icebergs, polar bears, vast stark stretches of white interrupted only by the shock of a red tent. The main theme of the score may be one of Ennio Morricone's most beautiful.
Western critics don't seem to have liked this film. I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that it was a joint Soviet-Italian production during the Cold War.
Sean Connery takes first billing in the ads, but it's really Peter Finch's film. Connery's character doesn't start to figure in the story in any meaningful way until more than an hour in, and he has relatively little screentime overall. Claudia Cardinale is the only woman in the film, and her part seems to have been added in almost as an afterthought.
Interesting trivia: The actor Nicolay Ivanov, who played the Russian amateur radio operator who picked up the transmissions from the stranded crew, just died a few months ago. Actor Mario Adorf, who played the crew's radio man Biaggi in the film, is still acting at age 90.
8/10