What's with the baloons?

Roberto Rossellini listens to his lead actress on the set of Viaggio in Italia (1954). The lead actress, a certain Swedish national, is his wife. George Sanders, a classy Brit plays a classic prick: Bergman's screen husband reads the script, clueless. Rumour has it Sanders kept himself in a permanent daze of insecurity as he strolled the set asking Rossellini for directions. True or false, this turned out to be the best state of mind to play Alex Joyce to Katherine Joyce, the director's wife. Rossellini, despite the beret, was a domineering figure, helped along by his past colossal youth and the thickness of his dictatoresque spectacles.

RB