(Italian; English subtitles) Thirty-something sailor Martin Eden is inspired to remake himself as a novelist, following a chance encounter with the sophisticated, wealthy Elena. She immediately becomes not only the object of his passionate affections, but also the symbol of the status Martin aspires to achieve. A passionate and enthralling cinematic achievement in the tradition of Rossellini and Visconti, Pietro Marcello's enveloping and superbly-mounted fable interweaves historical footage with an extraordinary production design of his own. The film's ideas are universal and timeless: the hypocrisy of class, the disillusionment of ideologies, the limits of romanticism and realism, and the question of what it means, ultimately, to be an individual.