Review of The Ritual (2017) by Kenr — 04 Oct 2018

IL Grido (The Cry) is a bleak Italian drama of a young de facto husband and father (Aldo, played by Steve Cochran), trying unsuccessfully, to overcome his grief at his relationship falling apart. Beautiful Alida Valli plays his ‘partner’ (Irma) who has taken up with another man.

She’s unsure if she’s making the right decision but as she’s done this sort of thing before, it appears maybe she has an unstable mental condition. In fact, this picture tends to paint a rather unflattering picture of womanhood.

Aldo takes to the road looking for work with his young daughter in tow. Most of the women he comes across are either loose or uncommitted to a lasting relationship. One of the only stable women is Elvia convincingly played by Betsy Blair (Mrs Gene Kelly) She’s an old girlfriend of Aldo’s who’s still hopeful of rekindling the relationship – unfortunately for both, Aldo is unable to get over the loss of Irma and following a drunken flirtation by Elvia’s sister, played by beautiful Gabriella Pallotta, he decides it’s best to move on.

The locations are as dismal as the story situations and there appear to be some minor continuity problems but, it’s the rather ambiguous ending that seems to be more ‘tacked on’ as a means to an end - relying on tragedy elements to make it memorable.

This received some Awards but these look to be more from an industry trying to ‘sell’ the picture - than for art’s sake. It’s always a curious watch and director of Photography Gianni Di Venanzo (8 1/2) gives it a class look.

The music score by prolific composer Giovanni Fusco (The Confession) is rather unusual with a nice piano soliloquy giving some haunting quality - all performances are generally good but the story and settings may not please a big audience.

At least it’s more approachable than director Antonioni’s later pretentious efforts and the DVD Mastering offers a good transfer – subtitles are also OK.