ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the relationship between Giulio Andreotti and Father Felix Morlion, their involvement with the neorealist Roberto Rossellini and their ultimate failure to develop a 'Catholic neorealism'. Father Morlion was a Belgian Dominican whose anti-Communist activity encouraged an ideological use of cinema. Andreotti assigned Morlion in his policy aimed at moralizing neorealism, going as far as defending the Dominican's action despite the disappointment of the pope himself. Rossellini became involved with their aspirations for a Catholic neorealism, in spite of being considered scandalous by the Catholic Church due to his public love affairs, when they offered him a way to succeed in a changed political environment. Rossellini directed two films: Stromboli, terra di Dio and Francesco giullare di Dio were intended to establish a Catholic neorealism in its own right. Such a Catholic neorealism would meet with the approval of the Catholic Church and the Christian Democratic Party and offer an alternative to the neorealism Rossellini had helped develop.