After World War II, Hollywood began creating epic blockbusters and one of the first came in 1950 with
Roberto Rossellini's Italian neo-realism drama,
Stromboli. At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made and had a budget of over a million dollars. The film, which stars
Ingrid Bergman as a women who escapes an internment camp by claiming she fell in love with an Italian soldier. After the war, the duo go live in his remote village in the island of Stromboli off the coast of Sicily. The film takes a turn when the man she thought she would be involved in becomes a monster and treats her like garbage. Bergman's character then falls for another man on the island causing a passionate and volatile love triangle which parallels the volcano on the island which erupts causing everyone to flee. The film itself was a box office bomb, causing the studio, RKO, to lose over $200,000, however, it did create tabloid sensations as Bergman and Rossellini had an affair which resulted in a child out of wedlock. The film also was edited down to 80 minutes in America where the rest of the world saw a film that was 105 minutes long causing both cuts to create vastly different movies. Over the years, the film has gained the acclaim it never got at the time and has since been hailed as one of the best Italian films ever.
