Roberto Rossellini's film starring his lover Ingrid Bergman casts her as a spoiled wife in a wealthy set in Rome in the early 50s. Her 12-year-old son, striving to get her attention, succeeds tragically, and in the aftermath she throws herself into efforts to help some of the multitude of people impoverished by the war. A friend who's a newspaperman and socialist nurtures her interest with books and projects, but political solutions seem spiritually empty to her, so she continues to seek her own way. Though her friendly acceptance by poor people seems improbable, she revels in the vitality of their lives, in contrast to the chill of her aristocratic class. Some fine minor roles include Giulietta Masina (Federico Fellini's muse) as a single woman with six children, who can't wait to get together with the likely father of number seven. This cheery earth-mother, who bathes, feeds, and lovingly scolds her brood, through Bergman's intervention gets a factory job - I couldn't help wondering who was going to look after her bambini while she was at work all day. Later Bergman shields a young man involved in armed robbery, and though he turns himself in, the police chief's attention falls on her - what is she up to and why? Obviously, she must be insane. And off to the asylum she goes, more agreeably than I would have expected. Her husband visits to speak to the doctor, but not to her. As she settles into the community there, it grows apparent that she's getting further away from ability to return to a "normal life" in her class. The kindness she feels toward humanity finds an outlet in responding to the distress of fellow patients, and finally she becomes something of a saint. It's all so heartfelt and innocent - an antidote perhaps to the horrors of the recently ended war? Rossellini likes to put her in surroundings that contrast with her character, to heighten her changes of heart - but he also likes to dress her in expensive dresses and furs - this woman is not the Ilsa Lund of Casablanca - she has the passion to do good for others, but she is also a woman accustomed to luxury, for which the director offers no apology.