Graziella

The film is based on the poet Alphonse de Lamartine's very poetical and sentimental story of his adventures in Naples, when he was shipwrecked with fishermen in their boat by the village of Procida on the sea outside Naples, where he was well taken care of and learned a lot from the life of the simple fishermen and their ways of life and fell in love with the girl Graziella, who also fell in love with him. But he was of a noble family in Paris with great responsibilities who refused to accept his relationship with a simple fisherman's daughter. It sounds like the ordinary romantic cliché story of forbidden love, and it is, but it is beautifully made with heart-melting music by Alessandro Cicognini accompanying the story all the way, with great rustic scenery, the highlight being a festive tarantella in the village with all the people dancing and celebrating with fireworks and natural joyfulness. Maria Fiori makes a heart-rending role of the simple girl all innocence and sincerity, who struggles to learn to read and write for his sake, and Jean-Pierre Mocky makes very honest impression as the stranded lover, he does everything he can and even spites his parents, and he is not a little reminding of Gérard Philippe, who would have been splendid in the same role. On the whole, the film is all genuineness and sincerity and makes justice to Lamartine's heart-rending story, ending in a total meltdown.

Lamartine was an acclaimed poet and novelist and also politician of France, candidating for the presidency which he lost to Napoleon III, after which he wrote this novel in 1852 about his experiences around Naples 40 years earlier. The story is true, although she actually was a tobacconist's daughter, and he never got over her tragedy, which followed him to his death at 78.