voyage to italy 1954

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Journey to italy.

1954 ‘Viaggio in Italia’ Directed by Roberto Rossellini

This deceptively simple tale of a bored English couple travelling to Italy to find a buyer for a house inherited from an uncle is transformed by Roberto Rossellini into a passionate story of cruelty and cynicism as their marriage disintegrates around them.

Ingrid Bergman George Sanders Jackie Frost Maria Mauban Anna Proclemer Leslie Daniels Natalia Ray Paul Müller Bianca Maria Cerasoli Adriana Danieli María Martín Lyla Rocco

Director Director

Roberto Rossellini

Producers Producers

Alfredo Guarini Adolfo Fossataro Roberto Rossellini

Writers Writers

Vitaliano Brancati Roberto Rossellini

Original Writer Original Writer

Editor editor.

Jolanda Benvenuti

Cinematography Cinematography

Enzo Serafin

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Marcello Caracciolo Di Laurino Vladimiro Cecchi

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Aldo Scavarda

Production Design Production Design

Piero Filippone

Composer Composer

Renzo Rossellini

Sound Sound

Eraldo Giordani

Costume Design Costume Design

Fernanda Gattinoni

Sveva Film Junior Film Italia Produzione Film Société Générale de Cinématographie (S.G.C.)

Italy France

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Italian

Releases by Date

07 sep 1954, 09 nov 1954, 20 dec 1954, 01 jan 1955, 28 oct 1955, 01 nov 1957, 21 dec 2012, 30 jun 2021, 12 feb 2021, releases by country.

• Theatrical e 12
• Theatrical TP Visa CNC 15916
• Physical DVD
• Theatrical Reprise
• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical (Rated A)
• Theatrical PG (BFI Films re-release)

85 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by ele 🪷 ★★★

i really relate to ingrid bergman’s character in this movie because she’s constantly grumbling to herself about how she hates all men except this one dead poet she used to know.

Review by cassandra ★★★½ 10

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Didn't realize how cynical I was until a happy ending made me angry.

Review by Nicolás Vargas ★★★★ 2

Imagine taking Ingrid Bergman to Italy just to treat her like shit.

Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★ 14

I guess we're calling this "Journey to Italy" now? I always preferred "Voyage in Italy". It's not about their travel to Italy, but rather the travels, physical, emotional, spiritual, etc, they make while already in Italy. Weird that we haven't been able to come to a consensus on the title of what is obviously one of the best movies.

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 2

Journey to Italy is relatively simple, but the implications are cosmic. A disruption in geography causes a waning relationship to fully dismantle and then reassemble within the context of a shifting understanding of themselves as human beings. All it showcases is a couple on the rocks only to realize they are everything to each other, as much as they hate that idea. But Roberto Rossellini doesn't merely provide an existential core to the proceedings, but a metaphysical one as well. This is a film not just about what happens to us, the reality of life and death and love, but what we should contemplate or yearn to understand while we're here. Journey to Italy , above all else, seeks to…

Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 1

Viaggio, Voyage, Journey - before the history films, travelogue is the key to Rossellini's cinema: Paisan, Stromboli, India, Viva Italia. In the first and last of these we get literal maps charting our progression from one story/location to another, and all films here mentioned here minus Stromboli are these progressions from South to North. This movie is no exception either. We have no maps in this film, and no wonder! The Joyces are very lost, trying to find hope in a place they don't understand, trapped in the prisms of their own beliefs - not till the end do both discover that the travelogue isn't physical, it is in their own hearts - their emotions must travel from south to…

Review by Cahiers Du Cinéma

Eric Rohmer: 'The Land of Miracles'

('La Terre du Miracle', Cahiers du Cinema 47, May 1955, written under his real name, Maurice Scherer)

The term 'neo-realism' has become so debased that I would hesitate to use it in relation to Viaggio in Italia if Rossellini hadn't in fact claimed it himself. He sees this film as embodying a 'neo-realism' that is purer and deeper than in any of his earlier films. At least that was his comment to one member of the audience at the Paris premiere. One can certainly talk about evolution in the work of the author of Rome, Open City. If it is true that the more recent films can only at a pinch be categorized along…

Review by Janica ★★★ 2

Again, not what I expected. Not being familiar with Rossellini, I keep forgetting his seeming preference for simplicity and honesty of scenario and of shooting, and for a shagginess and a monumentality in construction. I was caught up in the film but had some trouble seeing What The Big Deal Was , until it dawned on me that Rossellini was using the exterior world as an extension of the interior landscape of his characters, in a way that directly prefigures the work of Antonioni.

I don’t know if I buy the miracle at the end; it came and went so quickly that it caught me off guard. Even as I knew I was seeing Ingrid Bergman wrestling with reappraising her life…

Review by Carlos Valladares ★★★★★ 4

It's movies like Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy that make me grateful to be alive—here, now, in this moment, communicating with you.

It's movies like Voyage in Italy that give me the crucial insight into the world I previously did not possess, but which I now realize I had the capability of possessing all along.

It's movies like Voyage in Italy that leave me staring in wide-eyed wonder at the power of the cinematic-photographic image to transcend space-time and reach me in the heart, where it counts.

It's movies like Voyage in Italy that understand the true essence of film: as a paradoxical medium of life and death, chronicling existence in the past, mummifying faces in the present, foretelling death…

Review by Zegan ★★★★ 2

Even the natural beauty of Italy is nothing compared to the natural beauty of Ingrid Bergman

Review by Evan T ★★★★

If anything deserves a 2K restoration as stunning as this, it’s the spellbinding face of Ingrid Bergman. After seeing only a handful of her performances, I’m convinced there’s never been a reactionary actor like her. She’s so convincing you can almost hear the thoughts rattling around in her head, committed physical performance and rapturous eyes telling half the story before she’s even opened her mouth. George Sanders bats back superbly, depicting a tangible jealousy that’s coated in a covert disguise of romantic indifference. Some scenes could linger in the thematic weight a while longer, the limitations of the era clearly visible through sketchy edits and one too many conversations cut short, but I wasn’t expecting the existential angst Rossellini packs into this. I intentionally picked this over an Ingmar Bergman film to avoid morbidity tonight, so don’t make the same mistake I did, but know that if you do, it’ll probably be one of the best mistakes of your life.

Review by Sally Jane Black

Part travelogue, part romance, it seems, this film captures two ideas that appeal to me: the emotional impact of setting and the manner in which love is born in adversity. The former is repeatedly on display from the rolling Italian countryside to the forays Ingrid Bergman's character makes through the ruins and museums to the famous excavation scene. While I found it occasionally overlong in depicting her jaunts through Vesuvius's shadow, the museum sequence stood out as especially powerful, and the excavation scene earned its reputation.

The latter is mostly on display in the final moments of the film. As the crowd sweeps her away and she calls for her soon-to-be-ex-husband, the repressed love she feels for him becomes undeniable,…

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• Anna Proclemer
• Leslie Daniels
• #70 Best Italian Movies of all time
• "One of the most quietly revolutionary works in the history of cinema"  Richard Brody : The New Yorker
• "You might not want to bring along someone you love, because you could end up leaving the theater alone." Peter Keough : Boston Globe
• "Voyage to Italy is the kind of movie that makes those unhappily in love feel understood" Joshua Rothkopf : Time Out
• "Voyage to Italy is close to watching actual strangers suffer loneliness despite being together. It can leave an aching bruise, but only if you're paying attention." Michael Atkinson : Village Voice
• "There is real greatness in this movie."  Peter Bradshaw : The Guardian
• 32 My Favorite Italian Movies (54)

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Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy) – review

R oberto Rossellini's mysterious, gripping and moving Viaggio in Italia (1954) – now restored and rereleased – is a cine-ancestor to Antonioni's L'Avventura and Roeg's Don't Look Now. George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman are Alexander and Katherine Joyce, a well-to-do English couple who have come to southern Italy to sell some property and do a little sightseeing, but something in their enforced leisure, the disturbing beauty of the landscape and vertiginous sense of history accelerates a crisis in their troubled marriage. The movie is often characterised as a study in ennui and curdled dolce far niente , a sunbaked torpor and languor that incubates marital despair. But actually, Alexander and Katherine's senses have been peeled; they are more alive than ever, intensely aware of each other and themselves, and although irritated, they are perversely intrigued by one other. It is a kind of delayed anti-honeymoon of dark revelation, made more poignant by the incessant Neapolitan love songs Rossellini creates in the background. Katherine's revelation of a previous tendresse for a young poet associated with the locale – together with the couple's surname – may faintly recall Joyce's short story The Dead. The final sequence in Pompeii, as the stunned couple witness the exhumation of two people at the moment of death, is electrifying and moving. There is real greatness in this movie.

• Drama films
• World cinema

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Most viewed.

BFI Recommends: Journey to Italy

Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders star as feuding spouses on holiday in Journey to Italy, a modernist milestone chosen by Julie Pearce for the latest in our series of daily viewing recommendations.

20 April 2020

By  Julie Pearce

Journey to Italy is the 1954 drama directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring his then-wife Ingrid Bergman as Katherine, a wealthy British woman who travels by car with her husband Alex (George Sanders) on a trip across the Italian countryside to close on an inherited villa in Naples. The couple’s relationship becomes strained amid mutual misunderstandings, cynicism and jealousy, and they begin to spend their days separately. The film is electrifying and moving, ending with a devastating final scene. It was much maligned and indifferently reviewed, but has grown to be recognised as a seminal work of modernist cinema – considered by many to be Rossellini’s masterpiece, and voted into the 2012 Sight & Sound poll as one of the 50 greatest films ever made.

One of my biggest challenges, and indeed joys, at the BFI was researching a Rossellini retrospective in collaboration with colleagues at Cinematheque Ontario and MOMA , New York. The project took around two years to put together and was full of rights complexities and challenging screening materials, but we made it! The situation around materials has greatly improved since then and very happily the BFI subsequently acquired Journey to Italy, making it available across the UK .

Julie Pearce Head of Distribution and Programme Operations

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Voyage to Italy

1953, Romance/Drama, 1h 40m

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Voyage to italy   photos.

Sharing a passionless existence together, Alexander (George Sanders) and Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman), a married English couple, travel to Naples after inheriting a villa. On the verge of divorce, with neither one's disposition warming to the other, they decide to spend the rest of the trip separately. Katherine visits museums and historical sites, whereas Alexander goes to Capri to unwind with drinks. However, during the course of their vacation, the Joyces both undergo changes.

Genre: Romance, Drama

Original Language: Italian

Director: Roberto Rossellini

Producer: Adolfo Fossataro , Alfredo Guarini , Roberto Rossellini

Writer: Vitaliano Brancati , Roberto Rossellini

Release Date (Theaters): Sep 1, 1955  original

Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017

Runtime: 1h 40m

Distributor: Fine Arts Film Inc.

Production Co: SCG, Juno-Speva Film, Francinex, Italia Film, Sveva-Junior, Les Films Ariane, S.E.C.

Cast & Crew

Ingrid Bergman

Katherine Joyce

George Sanders

Alexander "Alex" Joyce

Anthony La Penna

Tony Burton

Maria Mauban

Anna Proclemer

La prostituta

Paul Muller

Paul Dupont

Natalia Ray

Natalie Burton

Jackie Frost

Roberto Rossellini

Vitaliano Brancati

Screenwriter

Adolfo Fossataro

Alfredo Guarini

Enzo Serafin

Cinematographer

Jolanda Benvenuti

Film Editing

Piero Filippone

Production Design

Fernanda Gattinoni

Costume Design

Critic Reviews for Voyage to Italy

Audience reviews for voyage to italy.

Ponderous direction doesn't help but the two leads are so talented that they make this pedestrian drama worth watching.

"Voyage to Italy" starts with Alex(George Sanders) and Katherine(Ingrid Bergman), a wealthy couple, traveling from England to Naples to see Burton(Leslie Daniels) about settling a family estate there. That's only the beginning of the journey, at least emotionally, as she thinks he could use the trip as a break from work but he only intends to stay as long as necessary to complete the deal. For the record, they seem like one of those mismatched couples who got married only after seeing there was nobody else left and said why not. But as radiant as the human actors are in the movie, they are not the stars of it. That comes down to the local scenery and history of Naples, where despite all the death, both ancient and recent, the locals live their lives to the fullest which Alex and Katherine have trouble adjusting to, and not just because they drive a car with a steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. And that's pretty much it for any kind of story here which is unsentimental to a fault, at least until the movie's forced ending.

An intimate and involving drama about an unhappy couple facing the collapse of their marriage while on a trip that only exposes their mutual discontent. It feels sad and real, but it is a pity that the story ends in such an easy and artificial way.

Innovative narrative structure. Italy itself is a predominant character in this subtle film. A precursor to Antonioni's alienation trilogy.

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, roberto rossellini, ingrid bergman, george sanders, maria mauban, jolanda benvenuti, vitaliano brancati, photos & videos, technical specs.

A married couple seek insight and direction within their relationship in Italy.

Adolfo Fossataro

Alfred guarini, enzo serafin.

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Journey to Italy (Italy, 1954)

There’s no debating that Journey to Italy (also commonly called Voyage to Italy – the official Italian title is Viaggio in Italia ) is an important film, but is being “important” enough to make a motion picture “good?” Loosely based on Colette’s Duo (a faithful adaptation had to be scrapped because of rights’ issues), Journey to Italy is a character-based melodrama in which little happens. Narratively, the movie explores the disintegration of a marriage, but in many ways the scenery is more interesting than the story.

This is the third feature from director Roberto Rossellini to star his then-wife Ingrid Bergman. The movie’s claim to fame relates to the way Rossellini entwines documentary elements – a travelogue of locations in and around Naples – with the fictional plot. Aspects of Rossellini’s style were embraced and celebrated by members of the French New Wave and his approach to screenwriting – using improvisation to fill out a loosely sketched “screenplay” – later became the template for notable directors like Mike Leigh.

Movies of this sort, with their scenes from a marriage, usually boast rich (and often witty) dialogue. That’s not the case here. In large part because Rossellini didn’t employ traditional screenplay methods, his characters don’t have much to say that’s interesting or memorable. The film gets most of its interpersonal mileage through how the characters look and react, not by what they say. The most poignant sequence occurs on the night when Alex returns from Capri. Katherine pretends to be asleep and the two execute a tap-dance around their feelings of jealousy (on her part) and loneliness. They sleep in different rooms but the barrier between them is more impenetrable than a mere wall.

As a travelogue and a meditation about the existential void that exists for many disillusioned people, Journey to Italy has something to offer. As a character study about a crumbling marriage, it’s less successful. This is due in part to the limited amount of time the leads spend in each other’s company, the lack of substantive interaction between them when they are together, and the artificial “happy” ending that has them reuniting and pledging their love for one another following the Pompeii visit. The movie deserves to be seen, even by a modern audience that may find it opaque, but it works best when viewed within the larger context of how moviemaking shifted during the 1950s and 1960s than as a stand-alone motion picture.

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"Voyage to Italy"

Released on 01/11/2012

Are you sure you know when I'm happy?

No, ever since we left on this trip I'm not so sure.

I realized for the first time that we are like strangers.

[Richard] I'm Richard Brody and this clip is

from Voyage to Italy, a 1954 film

directed by Roberto Rossellini.

At home everything seemed so perfect.

It starts Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders

as an English couple, Alex and Katherine Joyce

who go to Naples to sell a house

that Alex has inherited from an expatriate uncle.

But the real drama involves scenes from their marriage.

What did Charles's cough tell you?

That he was a fool.

He was not a fool, he was a poet.

What's the difference?

[Richard] The couple have been together

for eight years and Alex, a busy and distracted businessman,

seems to be growing bored with his wife.

Meanwhile, under the heady influence of Italian culture,

Katherine reminiscences about a former lover,

a poet who died young and under who's spell

she seems to be traveling.

Rossellini, who was married to Bergman

at the time he made this film,

achieved a remarkable shift in his career

through their work together.

He fused the symbolic and psychological power

of melodrama to documentary style realism.

Though the film is scripted,

the drama seems to arise largely from the characters

and indeed the actors' contact

with the film's real life surroundings.

Rossellini's method bringing high powered actors together

in a situation that is essentially documentary is

quietly and deeply radical.

[singing in foreign language]

It is in effect the film that inspired the French New Wave.

All these are new excavations.

[Richard] In this scene, Rossellini brings his actors

out on location for an archeological dig in Pompeii.

When the men find hallowed ground

the make a number of holes

and through these they pour plaster.

And the plaster fills out the hollow space

left in the ground by the body, which has disintegrated.

[Richard] He gives you as a fascinating glimpse

of how the ruins are reconstituted.

But most of all he finds the precise point of convergence

between the historical fact of Pompeii

and the state of mind of his characters.

And now the skull bones and the teeth

both remarkable well preserved.

Two people just as they were at the moment they died.

[speaking in foreign language]

A man and a woman.

Perhaps husband and wife, who knows?

May have found death like this together.

[Katherine cries]

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Journey to Italy (1954)

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Voyage to Italy

Viaggio in Italia / Voyage to Italy / Voyage in Italy / Strangers (1954 Italy/France 97 mins)

Prod Co: Sveva/Junior/Italiafilm Prod: Adolfo Fossataro Dir: Roberto Rossellini Scr: Roberto Rossellini, Vitaliano Brancati Phot: Enzo Serafin Ed: Jolanda Benvenuti Mus: Renzo Rossellini

Cast: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Leslie Daniels, Natalia Ray, Marie Mauban, Anna Proclemer

Roberto Rossellini’s Viaggio in Italia / Voyage to Italy was shot from 2 February through 30 April 1953, on a variety of locations throughout Italy, including Naples, Capri, Pompeii, and at the Titanus studios in Rome, and was a tempestuous production throughout. The film’s plot is simple: an unhappily married couple, Katherine (Ingrid Bergman) and Alex Joyce (George Sanders) are traveling from London through Italy to Naples, where they have inherited a villa. Their marriage is a shambles, and they quarrel constantly; indeed, it is hard to imagine a more ill suited couple in the history of cinema. Katherine, relatively young and vibrant, seems trapped in a loveless match with the ill-tempered, dour Alex, who thinks only of money, and openly flirts with other women while ignoring his wife. Katherine has made the journey not only to sell the villa, but also in the hope that the “voyage” will reignite the passion of their marriage; instead, as the trip becomes more complex, and fraught with delays and interruptions, Alex’s boredom and frustration turns to outright hostility towards his wife.

In desperation, Katherine recounts to her disaffected husband the tale of a former suitor who, long ago, has been passionately in love with her; but Alex is unmoved, and Katherine seems resigned to the fact that their marriage will end in divorce, as soon as the necessary papers for the sale of the villa have been signed. The couple decide to split up, and spend their remaining time in Naples separately; Katherine visits a series of natural wonders with a succession of paid, only professionally attentive Italian tour guides, while Alex seeks out the company of a group of British nationals vacationing in Capri. Katherine’s time is nevertheless redolent of the state of her collapsing marriage; viewing the ruins of Pompeii, with human bodies still entombed in centuries-old ash, as well as witnessing first-hand a small volcanic eruption on a tour, Katherine seems lost, lonely, and disconnected from the world around her, yet at the same time she years for some sort of human compassion. Alex is clearly disinterested.

And yet, in the film’s final, unforgettable sequence, as the now-reunited, but still-quarreling couple watch a passing religious procession, they are seized with an unexpected emotion, and fervently embrace each other, declaring their love, and wondering how they could possibly have become so estranged. Their renewal of love is a miracle, entirely inexplicable by any conventional narrative standards; the entire film, indeed, has been consistently moving away from such a reconciliation, and yet, in the film’s final moments, love appears to have conquered a seemingly irreparable emotional breakdown. It is one of the most unexpected and transcendent moments in not just all of Rossellini, but in all of cinema; as one might imagine, the ending was also highly controversial at the time of the film’s release, and remains so, because it seems to come out of thin air, rather than in response to any section or aspect of the film’s narrative exposition. Tag Gallagher, in his excellent volume The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini , devotes an entire chapter to a detailed deconstruction of Voyage to Italy , and notes that

Voyage in Italy often evokes the style of a home movie of the Joyces’ remarkable vacation, because it is a home movie; a recording of what happened to Ingrid Bergman while her husband filmed her attempts to make love with – of all unlikely people – George Sanders (a situation her husband, not at all ingenuously, had set up), and how they went here and there looking for something to see. (1)

Much of the film, indeed, was improvised, a situation that didn’t sit well with either Sanders or Bergman, though, as Rossellini’s wife after their “scandalous” liaison in the late 1940s, Bergman was much more used to Rossellini’s rather unconventional shooting style. However, as Gallagher notes, much of the film’s narrative “drew heavily on a script, New Vine, by Antonio Pietrangeli about a quarreling English couple touring Naples in a Jaguar” (2) . Rossellini also had “the novelist Vitalio Brancati on the set during part of the shooting” (3) , but, still, “as far as anyone connected with the production knew, not even an outline existed” (4) . Shooting, also, proceeded erratically, with Rossellini simply refusing to shoot on days when he didn’t feel sufficiently inspired to work. Rossellini would simply disappear, leaving the crew wondering what the next move would be. Then, too, the finished film languished on the shelf for a year-and-a-half before a distributor could be found; released in July 1954, it was pretty much dumped into theatres, and failed to find an audience  (5) .

But yet, despite all the wandering and searching that the film depicts, and the seemingly haphazard manner in which it was shot and “scripted”, Voyage to Italy succeeds on every level because it is itself a voyage of discovery, in which Rossellini is trying to capture the actual dynamics between his two leading actors, and to follow them as they attempt to make a connection with each other, and with the Italian countryside as well. A leisurely, contemplative film, in no particular hurry to get anywhere (much like any vacation), Voyage to Italy is unique in film history as a testament to faith, inspiration and innovation, even if George Sanders complained throughout the entire production that he had no idea what was happening, and that Rossellini’s production methods were both eccentric and wasteful. Voyage to Italy is a film in search of itself, a film that only knows its own conclusion when it appears, miraculously, in front of it, arriving at a final destination that no one in the audience could possibly have foreseen. And yet, the final moments of the film seem absolutely “right”; indeed, it seems to be the only possible conclusion to the film. And this, of course, is what Rossellini had been searching for all along  (6) .

Watch Voyage to Italy

• 1 hr 37 min
• 7.3   (12,065)

Voyage to Italy is a black and white film from 1954 directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. The film follows the story of Alex and Katherine Joyce, an unhappily married couple from England who travel to Italy to sell a recently inherited villa. While there, they begin to question their relationship and the choices they have made in their lives.

The film begins with the Joyces arriving in Naples and immediately showing their disdain for the Italian culture and people. They seem bored with each other and their surroundings, and it is clear that their relationship has been strained for some time. Throughout their visit, the Joyces confront their feelings and explore the beautiful Italian countryside.

For Katherine, the trip is a chance to escape her unhappy marriage and explore a world she has never known. She is drawn to the art, spirituality, and passion of the Italian people, and finds herself questioning whether she has made a mistake in staying with her husband for so long. Meanwhile, Alex is content to stick to his usual routine, spending his time working and making business calls. However, even he is eventually forced to confront his fears and insecurities when he is unexpectedly reunited with an old flame.

Throughout the film, Rossellini uses the beautiful Italian landscapes and architecture to convey the character's emotions. The Joyces are overwhelmed by the beauty of their surroundings, and Rossellini portrays this in stunning shots of the countryside and the city. The film also features many close-up shots of the characters, allowing the audience to connect with them on a more intimate level.

In addition to the beautiful cinematography, the film is also notable for its use of sound. Rossellini chose to use natural sound throughout the film, including crowded public spaces and the sounds of nature. This technique adds to the realism of the film and draws the viewer into the world of the Joyces.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film involves Katherine's visit to an ancient church. As she listens to the choir singing, it becomes clear that Katherine is experiencing a spiritual awakening. The scene is shot in a way that makes it feel almost like a documentary, and the beauty of the music and surroundings are truly breathtaking.

The film's climactic scene takes place in Pompeii, where the Joyces visit the ruins of the city. As they wander through the ancient streets, they are confronted with their mortality and the fleeting nature of life. This scene is both beautiful and haunting, and perfectly encapsulates the themes of the film.

Overall, Voyage to Italy is a beautiful and emotional film that explores the complexities of love, marriage, and life. The stunning cinematography and natural sound make the viewer feel as if they are truly experiencing Italy alongside the Joyces. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders give powerful performances, bringing depth and complexity to their roles as the troubled couple. This film is a true masterpiece, and an absolute must-see for fans of classic cinema.

• Genres Drama Romance
• Cast Ingrid Bergman George Sanders Maria Mauban
• Director Roberto Rossellini
• Release Date 1954
• MPAA Rating NR
• Runtime 1 hr 37 min
• Language English
• IMDB Rating 7.3   (12,065)
• Metascore 100

How to Read the Chronicles of Narnia Books in Order

The entire reading timeline, explained..

C.S. Lewis' sprawling Narnia series has entertained and enchanted generations of kids. But due to it being first released almost 75 years ago there have been many different editions, versions, and at some points suggested reading orders too. So if you're excited to step through the wardrobe into the wintery magic of Narnia, then we're here to tell you how to read the books in order and give you a brief rundown of what you can expect from the famous series.

• The best reading order
• How to read in chronological order

Although the original Chronicles of Narnia movies ended before adapting all of the books, Greta Gerwig's upcoming Netflix adaptations of the series are set to bring the story back to the screen once again.

Are you excited for new Chronicles of Narnia movies on Netflix?

Is there a correct order to read the books.

This is an interesting topic among fans as there has been disputes over the reading order of C.S. Lewis' beloved novels for decades thanks to different editions and boxsets. In this piece we'll be suggesting the original published order which follows the order in which they were written and published. In the '90s the books were reordered to be chronological to the events of the stories in a rather controversial move. That would eventually become the most well-known order in the US, but fans and scholars generally agree the original publishing order is the best way to experience the books. Though it's important to note C.S. Lewis might not have agreed.

The author himself once answered this question in a letter to a young boy who was considering reading them in chronological order rather than published order as his mother suggested. "I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother’s. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn’t think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found that I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them.”

Seeing as he ended his letter by saying it doesn't matter, we're taking that as approval for us to present the classic publishing order, but if you want to try out reading the books in chronological order too we're going to put it below our full write up of the series.

How to Read the Narnia Books in Order of Release

1. the lion, the witch and the wardrobe (1950).

The fantastical book that started it all, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows a family of young children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie who are sent away to the country during World War 2. While staying with their strange new carer Professor Digory Kirke the children find a wardrobe that allows them to enter the magical world of Narnia where the evil White Queen rules and the animal and human inhabitants await the return of the rightful leader Aslan. One of the most famous Portal Fantasy books in literature history there's a reason that this story has captured the imaginations of so many readers of all ages throughout the years.

The first Chronicles of Narnia movie , based on this book, was released back in 2005.

2. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)

After a year away from Narnia, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy find themselves back in Narnia where they once ruled as Kings and Queens. While only 12 months have passed in the real world, in the magical Kingdom 1300 years have passed making them legendary figures. A new oppressive regime of men are in charge of Narnia and the Young Prince Caspian is desperate for the help of the royals who once ruled over its most peaceful time. Expanding the lore and world of Narnia drastically this is an adventure-filled chapter in the lives of the Pevensie children as they're thrown into a battle for the place that means so much to them all.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was the second book to be adapted into a film within the series back in 2008.

3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

While staying with their horrible cousin Eustace, Lucy and Edmund — along with their less than enthusiastic relative — are sucked into a strange painting and into another Narnia adventure. Reunited with Caspian who is now King, the trio join the crew of the titular ship on a seafaring romp that will take readers to new regions of Narnia and reveal a shocking truth about Aslan. A coming of age for both Edmund and Lucy this is a vital addition to the Narnia canon and a resolute favorite among fans of the series on page and on screen.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the final book to be adapted to film back in 2010.

4. The Silver Chair (1953)

Moving on from the original Pevensie children, this story focuses on a now reformed Eustace who has grown and learned immensely from his time in Narnia. When he befriends a bullied girl named Jill and takes her under his wing the two are transported to Aslan's land where they meet the regal lion sends them on a mission to find the missing son of King Caspian.

5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)

When a young boy, Shasta, is offered up by his father as a slave he flees with a talking horse owned by his would be slaver. Together the pair venture across the mystical land of Calormen aiming to make their way back to Narnia. On their way they're swept up in a wild case of mistaken identity that leads them into the heart of the Archenland royalty. While this is a big swing away from the original Narnia characters you can still expect to see a few familiar faces.

6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955)

This prequel novel is set in the millenia before we first visited Narnia and features expansive exploration of its creation and establishment by Aslan. The theological aspects of C.S. Lewis' writing are at the forefront here with many biblical themes and stories adapted to the page. The author actually began writing this tale after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but it took him half a decade to finish the book, hence why it was published as the penultimate book.

7. The Last Battle (1956)

Returning to the classic Narnia timeline, the final book in the series continues the story of Jill and Eustace — albeit over 200 years since we last saw them in Narnia time — though the pair don't arrive til later into the story. That's because in Narnia a false idol has been presented and the descendant of King Caspian has to deal with that new wrinkle as the real Aslan decides the fate of the place he once created. Once again the theological aspects of Narnia are on full show here so if that's something that has interested you this is a must read finale to the saga.

How to Read the Narnia Books in Chronological Order

Just in case you do want to try the books in chronological order rather than by release, here's how that order too:

• The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
• The Horse and His Boy (1954)
• Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
• The Silver Chair (1953)
• The Last Battle (1956)

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more. Rosie is a published comics author who has written titles including Godzilla Rivals vs. Battra and The Haunted High-Tops. She co-hosts the weekly Crooked Media pop-culture podcast X-Ray Vision. When she's not writing, you can find her playing Dragon Ball FighterZ or rewatching weird old horror and martial movies in her free time. She loves making comics and zines as well as collecting VHS and reading much manga as humanly possible. You can find her on social at @rosiemarx.

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