Based upon an Ernest Hemingway’s semi-autobiographical novel published in 1929, A Farewell to Arms is a tale of love, focused on the tragic romance between an ambulance driver, Lt. Henry, and a nurse during the World War I.
This anti-war drama, set in Italy, shows one of the most thrilling visions of the power of love during war times. No other director created images like these, using light and movement like brushstrokes, integrating naturalism and daring expressionism in all his shots.
Premiered in Paris in 1933, this romantic melodrama has a sequence of less than 5 minutes, (showing a night exodus of military and civilian population on a road whilst being bombed), which according to José Luis Alcaine, keeps striking parallelism with the main characters in Picasso’s painting, frame by frame.
