Rotaie

In the breathtaking opening sequence of Mario Camerini’s film, two lovers walk a fine line between life and death in a hotel near a railroad. From that moment forward, Rotaie offers us everything: Soviet-style montage, a rich texture of German expressionism, nationalist propaganda, the intimacy of post-WWII neorealism, and the most unlikely of all love stories—a ne’er-do-well and a girl who blindly trusts him against all odds. It’s the last great silent produced in Italy (it was also released with a music soundtrack, against the will of its director), a synthesis of the best European cinema of the period and the unfulfilled promise of film as art under the Fascist regime. Unseen for decades outside its native country, this best-kept secret of Italian screen treasures comes to new life with Judith Rosenberg’s live music performance. –Telluride