Fear (aka La Paura) (1954)

The wife (Ingrid Bergman) of a pharmaceutical industrialist (Mathias Wieman) is having an extramarital affair. She feels guilt and attempts to break off from her lover (Kurt Kreuger) but before she can, his ex-mistress (Renate Mannhardt) blackmails her. Based on the novella by Stefan Zweig (LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN) and directed by Roberto Rossellini. Six years after GERMANY YEAR ZERO, Rossellini returns to Germany for a very different kind of film than the neorealist dramas which brought him international acclaim. It's a melodrama with near noir-ish touches as it looks at a woman pushed to the breaking point with guilt and fear over her affair being exposed. No surprise, Bergman gives a wonderful performance but it's really a mood piece. It's not a particularly strong film and easily the least interesting of the four films they made together (five if you include the filmed stage performance of JOAN AT THE STAKE). I suppose Rossellini is saying something about the moral turpitude of post war Germany otherwise why film it there and not in Italy? With Elise Aulinger.