The couple have hardly arrived at their villa before Alexander testily declares they need some time apart. She subsequently makes a series of solo day trips (The Lonely Woman was the film's UK title), while he spends the evenings drinking and half-heartedly chasing other women. The marriage steadily heads towards what seems to be an irreconcilable end until an unlikely source of redemption presents itself.

Voyage to Italy is one of the finest human dramas of Rossellini's post-neorealist period. As ever, he draws pitch-perfect performances from his principal stars. Both the impenetrable Bergman and the dry Sanders successfully capture the disaffected timbre of a couple whose familiarity has slowly bred contempt.

Rossellini sets this stuttering relationship against some dramatic natural settings. Like 1949's Stromboli - his first film with Bergman - the action takes place amid volcanic surroundings. By choosing specific locations to tell us something about the emotional state of his characters, the director makes Voyage to Italy an unlikely companion piece to his neorealist classic Germany, Year Zero.