On 20th July the BFI will release a numbered, limited edition Blu-ray box set, The Roberto Rossellini Ingrid Berman Collection. The set contains Stromboli Land of God (1950), Journey to Italy (1954) and Fear (1954), each of which will also be released individually on DVD on the same date. Both formats contain numerous special features.

When one of Italy’s most celebrated filmmakers, Roberto Rossellini, and one of Hollywood’s greatest screen stars, Ingrid Bergman, came together, they not only embarked on an extraordinary artistic collaboration, but also on an affair which would send shockwaves throughout the film world. By 1954, their real-life relationship was crumbling, and Journey to Italy and Fear reflected this change.

The Roberto Rossellini Ingrid Berman Collection will be released as a Numbered Limited Edition Blu-ray box set and as individual releases on DVD on 20th July 2015 at the RRP of £49.99 for the Blu-ray box set and £19.99 for each of the DVDs.

Blu-ray box set special features:

• Bergman & Magnani: The War of the Volcanoes (Francesco Patierno, 2012, 54 mins): documentary charting the scandal of the Magnani-Rossellini-Bergman love triangle

• Ingrid Bergman at the National Film Theatre (Chris Mohr, 1981, 37 mins): archival Guardian Lecture

• Living & Departed (Tag Gallagher, 2015, 19 mins): a video essay by film scholar Tag Gallagher

• Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, 1954, 83 mins): the alternative, Italian cut of Journey to Italy

• Journey to Italy audio commentary with filmmaker and academic Laura Mulvey (2003)

• Alternative Journey to Italy audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin (2007)

• My Dad is 100 Years Old (Guy Maddin, 2005, 18 mins): Isabella Rossellini’s playful tribute to her father

• The Machine That Kills Bad People (Roberto Rossellini, 1952, 85 mins): a fascinating film that reflects Rossellini’s transition from neo-realism to the more poetic films he made with Bergman

• Fully illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Tag Gallagher, Adriano Aprà, Laura Mulvey, Peter Bondanella and Paul Fairclough, and full film credits

Stromboli Land of God (Stromboli terra di Dio)

Stromboli Land of God follows Karin (Ingrid Bergman), a young Lithuanian woman who, eager to escape from a refugee camp, marries Antonio (Mario Vitale), a simple Italian fisherman, after he promises a great life on his home island of Stromboli. Karin soon discovers the island is harsh and unforgiving, with the locals acting in a hostile manner towards her, a strange, foreign woman. Her despondency increasing, she starts looking for ways to escape the desolation of this new life.

This first collaboration between Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman is famously the result of a fan letter that Bergman wrote, in which she spoke of her admiration for Rossellini’s work and her desire to make a film with him. Shot on location with many non-professional actors, the film depicts the minutiae of island life in a small fishing community. Rossellini combines the language of neo-realism with a lyrical style to explore the inner workings of Karin’s despair to devastating affect.

DVD special features:

• Bergman & Magnani: The War of the Volcanoes (Francesco Patierno, 2012, 54 mins): documentary charting the scandal of the Magnani-Rossellini-Bergman love triangle

• Ingrid Bergman at the National Film Theatre (Chris Mohr, 1981, 37 mins): archival Guardian Lecture

• Living & Departed (Tag Gallagher, 2015, 19 mins): a video essay by film scholar Tag Gallagher

• Fully illustrated booklet with essays by Tag Gallagher, Adriano Aprà and Paul Fairclough, and full film credits

Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia)

A well-to-do English couple travel to Naples after inheriting a villa – as the cracks in their tepid and conventional marriage start to appear they drift apart both emotionally and physically with increasing bitterness.

Widely misunderstood and shamefully denigrated at the time of its original release, Journey to Italy is now recognised not only as one of Rossellini’s greatest films but also as one of the key works of modern cinema. There is little plot to speak of in this deceptively simple piece – a marriage is breaking up under the strains of a trip and we are invited to watch. But in its deliberate rejection of many aspects of classic Hollywood narrative and its stubborn pursuit of a different aesthetic, this storyline creates space for ideas and time for reflection.

Starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders as the increasingly estranged couple, Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy represents a shift away from Italian neo-realism to a more nuanced examination of life’s complexity.

DVD special features:

• Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, 1954, 80 mins): the alternative, Italian cut of Journey to Italy

• Journey to Italy audio commentary with filmmaker and academic Laura Mulvey (2003)

• Alternative Journey to Italy audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin (2007)

• My Dad is 100 Years Old (Guy Maddin, 2005, 17 mins): Isabella Rossellini’s playful tribute to her father

• Fully illustrated booklet featuring essays by Tag Gallagher, Laura Mulvey and Paul Fairclough, and full film credits

Fear

Six years after Germany Year Zero, Roberto Rossellini returned to Germany to make this noir-influenced examination of solitude, alienation, and a crisis of moral values in contemporary life. Loosely based on Stefan Zweig’s novel Angst, Fear explores the inner turmoil of a woman pushed to the edge through the anxiety caused by her infidelity.

Ingrid Bergman stars as Irene, the wife of a prominent German scientist, Albert Wagner (Mathias Wieman). Irene has been engaged in an illicit affair which she goes to great pains to hide in order to keep her husband blissfully unaware. However, when her lover’s jealous ex-girlfriend, Johanna (Renate Mannhardt) learns of the relationship and proceeds to sadistically extort her, Irene’s life soon spirals out of control.

Released on DVD for the first time, Fear is presented here in a new restoration and is accompanied by the fascinating 1952 feature film The Machine That Kills Bad People which reflects Rossellini’s transition from neo-realism to the more poetic films he made with Bergman.

DVD special features:

• The Machine That Kills Bad People (Roberto Rossellini, 1952, 85 mins): a fascinating film that reflects Rossellini’s transition from neo-realism to the more poetic films he made with Bergman

• Fully illustrated booklet featuring essays by Tag Gallagher and Peter Bondanella, and full film credits