Grande strada azzurra, La (1957)
Wide Blue Road, The
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo – Story: from the novel Squarciò by Franco Solinas (1956) - Screenplay: Franco Solinas in collaboration with Ennio De Concini and Gillo Pontecorvo - Director of photography: Mario Montuori - Film editor: Eraldo Da Roma – Production design: Piero Gherardi, Mirko Lipužič - Music: Carlo Franci - Costume Design: Lucia Mirisola - Production: GE.S.I. Cinematografica/Eichberg Film/Play-Art/Triglav Film - Country: Italy/France/Germany/Yugoslavia - Running time: 95’
Cast: Yves Montand (Squarciò), Alida Valli (Rosetta), Francisco Rabal (Salvatore), Federica Ranchi (Diana), Umberto Spadaro (Marshal), Peter Carsten (Coast Guard Officer), Mario Girotti (Renato), Ronaldino Bonacchi (Rolandino), Josip Batistic, Stane Potokar, Angelo Zanolli, Giorgio Kuru, Giancarlo Soblone (Antonino), Janez Vanovec, Milutin Jasnic, Angela Sarlone, Pasquale Campagnola
The film:
Squarciò is a poacher who practices dynamite fishing; he lives with his family in a house he built through his own efforts and he clashes with the other village fishermen, friends, and childhood companions who are trying to organize themselves in a cooperative. Resolute and anarchic, Squarciò is a fascinating man of the sea and a family man, but in the end he is solitary, crushed between his battles and his risky livelihood.
“Maybe the film should have been harsher, truer, terser in everything, just like there was supposed to be that odor of truth which I think is in all my other movies and which can only occasionally be sensed here in this film. I shot La lunga strada azzurra very quickly and on a very limited budget. I was always working between two fires: the crazy and unrepeatable love you always have for your first movie; and, on the other hand, anger at not being able to do what I wanted.”
[Gillo Pontecorvo]
The film restoration:
The digital restoration of La grande strada azzurra, Gillo Pontecorvo’s first feature-length film, was conducted by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino and COMPASS FILM, from the best copy available today, a dupe negative owned by COMPASS FILM. The film was scanned at a 4K resolution and the digitized images were processed with digital restoration. From this same copy, the original soundtrack was obtained and digitally restored. The restoration was carried out in 2019 at the laboratory Studio Cine in Rome.
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