Roberto Rossellini's La Macchina Ammazzacattvi ("The Machine to Kill Bad People) is an obscure and rare Rossellini comedy that commenced filming in 1948, but was not completed until 1952. Rossellini was reputedly not involved in all the endless reshoots, but the picture bears his stamp. A minor film in his canon, it is still a better example of Italian Magical Realism than, say, Miracle in Milan.
What's notable about the film are its fantastical touches. The picture begins with a giant hand constructing a picture book representation of the port town of Amalfi where the action of the story is situated. The narrative concerns a photographer who meets a mysterious character he thinks is St. Andrew, but is actually a more sinister visitor. The visitor grants him the power to use his camera as a weapon of murder. The photographer seizes upon this opportunity to cull the town of its more venal inhabitants. The photographer becomes intoxicated with his new power, but senses he has overreached. He contemplates turning the camera upon himself before discovering the true identity of the supposed St. Andrew and renouncing the dubious gift. The townspeople killed are frozen into the pose they assumed before the camera, to comic effect. The picture is in a different vein than the Neo-Realism of Open City and Paisan, it is more akin to commedia dell'arte. Neo-Realism of that era in Italy owed more to commercial expediency than an adherence to a philosophical tenet.
Nevertheless, some of the best moments of La Macchina Ammazzacattvi. such as the Feast of St. Andrew and the blessing of the fishing fleet, are pure documentary. However, the film holds to no doctrine other than to present human folly. The victims of the photographer's camera, rich or poor, earn his wrath by their greed. They are types, not realistic characters, who are arranged in a farcical morality play.
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