Rossellini's 'Europa '51' and the Radical Compassion of Irene

In Roberto Rossellini's 1952 film 'Europa '51', the protagonist Irene, played by Ingrid Bergman, undergoes a radical transformation after her son Michel's death. She abandons her high-bourgeois life to embrace the poor and suffering, a move that society deems dangerous and punishable by isolation. The film, part of Rossellini's 'trilogy of solitude', explores themes of spirituality, salvation, and deviation from social norms. Christian Caliandro's article on Artribune analyzes how Rossellini strips Bergman's character bare, placing her in factories, slums, and psychiatric hospitals, to reveal a pure form of realism. The film questions whether society automatically suppresses any deviation from collective conventions, a question Rossellini poses to both mid-20th and early 21st century audiences. Caliandro draws on Giorgio Agamben's concept of 'form of life' to argue that Irene embodies a new rule of existence, one that generates a system of values through uncompromising compassion.