I Vinti

I vinti (English: The Vanquished) is a 1953 drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Franco Interlenghi, Anna Maria Ferrero and Eduardo Ciannelli. The film is composed of three stories about youths who commit murders. In the French story set in Paris, a group of high school students kill one of their colleagues for his money. In the Italian story set in Rome, a university student is involved in smuggling cigarettes. In the English story set in London, a lazy poet finds the body of a woman and tries to sell his story to the press.[1] The film was a project of Film Constellation to Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who proposed Antonioni as director. This film was screened at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.

I vinti
DVD cover
Directed byMichelangelo Antonioni
Produced byMario Gabrielli
Written by
Starring
Music byGiovanni Fusco
CinematographyEnzo Serafin
Edited byEraldo Da Roma
Production
company
  • Film Costellazione Produzione
  • Société Générale de Cinématographie
Distributed byFilm Costellazione Produzione
Release date
  • 4 September 1953 (1953-09-04) (US)
  • 21 October 1953 (1953-10-21) (Italy)
  • 2 January 1963 (1963-01-02) (France)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryItaly/France
Language
  • French
  • Italian
  • English

Cast
French story
Italian story
English story

Production and release

The theatrical film was dubbed into Italian for all three episodes, although the Paris episode is spoken in French, and the London episode in English. The Italian DVD by Medusa Film offers the restored uncut trilingual version.

The Italian episode was modified for censorship reasons, but it was later included in the 1962 anthology film Il fiore e la violenza. The entire film was refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Censors in 1954, and has never been released in the UK.[3] The French episode had trouble with French censorship, and was not released until 1963.

The English-language episode is loosely based on the murder of 48 year old Mrs Mabel Tattershaw by Herbert Leonard Mills, aged 19. Wanting to commit the "perfect murder", on 3 August 1951 Mills lured Tattershaw to Sherwood Vale, where he struck her about the head, and strangled her. He then returned home and waited for the body to be discovered. When this had not happened by 9 August he rang the News of the World, told them he had found the body of a strangled woman, and demanded payment for his story. Mills was quickly implicated, tried for the crime, and found guilty. He was executed on 11 December 1951. A report by the Nottingham Evening Post of Mills's arrest for the crime is shown on screen during the narrated introduction to the film, amongst others from across Europe reporting crimes by youths, including John Straffen.

Reception

I vinti, while seldom ranked with Antonioni's best efforts, is met with positive reception. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 86% approval among seven critics.[4]

References
  1. "I vinti". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  2. "Full cast and crew for I vinti". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  3. BBFC database - I Vinti
  4. "I Vinti (1953) on RT". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
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