Word: deathly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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LIKE most of Roberto Rossellini's films, General della Rovere has the simplest of plots. It's parasitic hero (Vittorio de Sica) takes the money of prisoners' relatives to buy their safety from the Nazis occupying northern Italy. Caught halfway through the film and faced with a death sentence, he accepts a German officer's plan to disguise him as the Resistance hero General della Rovere, whom a German patrol has just shot. In prison he encounters the spirit of the underground he is supposed to penetrate and reveal. Near the end he is given the choice of betraying...
...doctors as sleeping pills and tranquilizers. They are taken by kids only out of naivete or in the absence of anything better, since their high is minimal: after an initial flash of relaxation, in which tensions seem to disappear, they produce physical and mental lassitude and can cause death. Barbiturates also create heavy physical dependency...
...times the daily medical dosage usually prescribed for dieters. In rare cases?particularly when Methedrine is used?the jolt can raise blood pressure enough to cause immediate death; chronic use can lead to a psychosis that many doctors feel is more similar to schizophrenia than any of the psychotic symptoms brought on by other dangerous drugs. While a person is "up" on speed, his body runs down, making him easy prey to disease. Although amphetamines generally are not considered physically addictive, when a user comes down ("crashes") he is so tired and depressed that he is tempted to start again...
...times as strong by weight as mescaline and psilocybin, the related substances found in nature. It gives trippers intense hallucinations. Waves of color and vibrations sweep through the head; reality dissolves. Imagining that they are birds, some users have plunged to death or serious injury while attempting to fly. Known medically as hallucinogenics or psychotogenics, these drugs are still subject to intense research. They seldom kill outright, and do not create the symptoms of physical dependency. Although earlier researchers found that they can be linked to permanent breaks in animal and human chromosomes, more recent studies have been unable...
...actors (Ingrid Thulin, Anders Ek and Gunnar Böornstrand) perform a bizarre masque, part psychodrama, part sexual charade. They are like the mummers from The Seventh Seal or the circus performers from The Naked Night imprisoned in an allegory of doom. Inevitably the object of the masque is death. But the dramatic value of the ritual itself is disappointingly slight, giving the entire film an air of anticlimax. There are episodes of typical genius-one of the actors sits in a bed flipping matches from between his teeth until he finally incinerates himself-but Bergman has not quite managed...