178. Roma, Citta Aperta (Open City) (1945)

Directed By Roberto Rossellini

Synopsis

During the occupation of Rome the resistance remains active. The film follows a group of activists and their relations, progressively being more and more hounded by the Nazis. It doesn't end well.

Review

This is not the first neorealist film on the list, we had Visconti's Ossessione before, but because of copyright problems(Ossessione was lifting from The Postman Always Rings Twice) this was the first film that showed the world what neorealism is.

It could hardly have been a more potent film to start neorealism. The film is at the same time brutal and tender, the characters were lovingly developed from real life people, and played with obvious passion by the actors who in 1945 felt quite close to the thing.

Then there is a brutality underscoring the film which is truly shocking, the death of three of the main characters happens in pretty horrid circumstances, and altough the cameras cut away when they should it is still tremendously effective. Most of the film is filmed on location, with real people populating the street, some of the footage is almost documentary-like and all this ends up making this a pretty amazing and effective film. And hey what was the last time you saw a Nazi-Lesbian-Drug-Dealer?

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Since early on, this film has been considered a quintessential example of neorealism in film, so much so that together with Paisà and Germania anno zero it is called Rossellini's "Neorealist Trilogy." Robert Burgoyne called it "the perfect exemplar of this mode of cinematic creation [neorealism] whose established critical definition was given by André Bazin." More recent scholarship points out that this film is actually less neo-realist and more melodramatic, while queer studies points out the "atrocious gay stereotypes" in the film.

Thank You Queer Studies! I didn't spot that myself! I have no brain!

Queer Studies, patronising you since 1989

Pina gets it from behind: