Rome, Open City (1945)
(Roma, città aperta)
Country: IT
Technical: bw 101m
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Cast: Aldo Fabrizzi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero
Synopsis:
During the Nazi occupation of Rome the destinies of assorted characters (a priest, resistance fighters, a mother and child, an actress and an SS Major) are intertwined when one informs on the others.
Review:
An extraordinary film in its gestation - beginning with the Germans still in situ - in its strangely proleptic title (at no point during the film is the city 'open', as in abandoned), and above all in its combination of commercial and neo-realist aesthetics in the service of a plot which is essentially painful ('lest we forget') while affording a glimmer of hope at the end, with its mutually supportive boys trudging back to the city at the start of a new day. The characters are cyphers representing larger concerns (freedom, oppression, love, betrayal, martyrdom), but with Fabrizi and Magnani making their substantial presence felt one does not really notice. Most impressive is the execution of exterior scenes with documentary-like authenticity and salvaged German equipment, and the realization of effective sets for the interiors in such economically straitened circumstances. Rossellini employs suspense, comedy and melodrama to considered effect at different times, and yet holds back when one suspects he might not (the death of La Pina). A superb achievement and a memorial to a nation's soul at a key moment in its history.
(Roma, città aperta)
Country: IT
Technical: bw 101m
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Cast: Aldo Fabrizzi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero
Synopsis:
During the Nazi occupation of Rome the destinies of assorted characters (a priest, resistance fighters, a mother and child, an actress and an SS Major) are intertwined when one informs on the others.
Review:
An extraordinary film in its gestation - beginning with the Germans still in situ - in its strangely proleptic title (at no point during the film is the city 'open', as in abandoned), and above all in its combination of commercial and neo-realist aesthetics in the service of a plot which is essentially painful ('lest we forget') while affording a glimmer of hope at the end, with its mutually supportive boys trudging back to the city at the start of a new day. The characters are cyphers representing larger concerns (freedom, oppression, love, betrayal, martyrdom), but with Fabrizi and Magnani making their substantial presence felt one does not really notice. Most impressive is the execution of exterior scenes with documentary-like authenticity and salvaged German equipment, and the realization of effective sets for the interiors in such economically straitened circumstances. Rossellini employs suspense, comedy and melodrama to considered effect at different times, and yet holds back when one suspects he might not (the death of La Pina). A superb achievement and a memorial to a nation's soul at a key moment in its history.
(Roma, città aperta)
Country: IT
Technical: bw 101m
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Cast: Aldo Fabrizzi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero
Synopsis:
During the Nazi occupation of Rome the destinies of assorted characters (a priest, resistance fighters, a mother and child, an actress and an SS Major) are intertwined when one informs on the others.
Review:
An extraordinary film in its gestation - beginning with the Germans still in situ - in its strangely proleptic title (at no point during the film is the city 'open', as in abandoned), and above all in its combination of commercial and neo-realist aesthetics in the service of a plot which is essentially painful ('lest we forget') while affording a glimmer of hope at the end, with its mutually supportive boys trudging back to the city at the start of a new day. The characters are cyphers representing larger concerns (freedom, oppression, love, betrayal, martyrdom), but with Fabrizi and Magnani making their substantial presence felt one does not really notice. Most impressive is the execution of exterior scenes with documentary-like authenticity and salvaged German equipment, and the realization of effective sets for the interiors in such economically straitened circumstances. Rossellini employs suspense, comedy and melodrama to considered effect at different times, and yet holds back when one suspects he might not (the death of La Pina). A superb achievement and a memorial to a nation's soul at a key moment in its history.