1950 August 23

U.S. Senate Brands Famous Italian Film Director Rossellini a “Fascist”

 

The U.S. Senate on this day unanimously endorsed a resolution by Sen. Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) labelling the noted Italian film director Roberto Rossellini a “fascist.”

Specifically, the resolution labelled both Rossellini, husband of the noted actress Ingrid Bergman, a “fascist libertine.” Bergman’s affair with Rossellini while she was still married and while filming Stromboli provoked moral outrage among conservatives in the U.S. Bergman did not visit the U.S. for several years, as a result. On the Senate floor, Senator Johnson also read from a report that labelled Rossellini a fascist, narcotics addict, mental patient, and wartime lover of a Nazi actress.

The Senate resolution also stated films directed or produced by “totalitarian-minded” film people should be banned from interstate commerce in the U.S.

Rossellini’s most acclaimed films include Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946).

Read: William Bruce Johnson, Miracles and Sacrilege: Roberto Rossellini, The Church, and Film Censorship in Hollywood (2007)

And also: Charlotte Chandler,  Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman and Personal Biography (2007)

Find Rossellini’s films at the Criterion Collection

 

 

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