Rome, Open City
With Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero.
Italy, 1945, DCP, black & white, 103 min.
Italian and German with English subtitles.
DCP source: Janus Films
Made in the last days and immediate aftermath of World War II, Rossellini’s revelatory masterpiece initiated the movement known as Italian neorealism. Shooting on location and using a mix of nonprofessional actors and professionals playing against type, Rossellini presents a picture of Rome and its ordinary people struggling to survive under German occupation. Day-to-day life alternates with heroics, and the group predominates over individuals during a rare period of cooperation between Catholic clergy and Communist Party resistance in the face of a common enemy. When the director enlisted a young Fellini to contribute to the script, he began Fellini’s formative apprenticeship in improvisational, documentary-like neorealism and helped launch the colorful, controversial career of the twenty-four-year-old with a film so realistic in detail and contemporary in content, it was banned in several countries.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
La strada
Variety Lights
Juliet of the Spirits - DCP
Juliet of the Spirits - 35mm
Variety Lights
Casanova
Fellini: A Director's Notebook
Satyricon
