The Vanquished
In the 1950s, the anthology film enjoyed a boom, generally with uneven results. With a screenplay by, among others, Giorgio Bassani, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, and Antonioni himself, the film portrays the disenchantment, the doubts, and the rebellions of the disoriented youth — as all youth are disoriented — of post-Second World War France, Italy, and England.
Remarkably modern, it tackles discussions that remain very much alive today and which are already reflected here: violence, the absence of principles and ideals. There is nothing new in this portrait of bourgeois youth “without emphasis or tinsel” across three different countries, accompanied by a didactic and moralizing prologue clearly imposed by the producer. Antonioni treats the social malaise — which is nothing other than the malaise of an entire generation — with that existentialist neo-realism so characteristic of the early years of his filmography and, from my perspective, the most interesting period of his body of work.
The French episode addresses the delusions of fame and grandeur at any price generated by an incomprehensible act of violence — a sign of a ferocious and terrifying existential and nihilistic void.
The Italian episode speaks of a capricious generation that refuses to take responsibility for its actions: a sort of rebellion without a cause, told through a story about cigarette smuggling that ends equally in an explosion of violence, but which serves to explore the disconnection from reality and the failure of communication — another of Antonioni’s favorite themes — between generations. “I want money. Lots of it, and fast.”
The third story, set in England, is the finest of the three and also the best acted, featuring a superb protagonist equally immature and consumed by delusions of fame at any cost, devoid of moral principles. “When you’re famous, things change.” A portrait that hovers between fascination and illuminating pathos.
Antonioni addresses intergenerational problems with a prosaic, very modern detachment — “pre-nouvelle vague” — pushing past the boundaries of the neo-realism from which his filmography springs. It is the tone, introverted and sustained, that makes this film stand out, and from which its greatest qualities are drawn. Very good.
Carlos