Roberto Rossellini, 3 films about war.

[charliechaplinfan]

Last week I watch these Rossellini films back to back, Rome Open City, Paisan and Germany Year Zero.

The only one I'd seen before was Rome Open City. I'd remembered Anna Mangnani as Pina very well but not remembered the priest quite as well, yet this time around it was the priest that I found to be the central character, Aldo Fabrizi who palyed the priest so convincingly. His conscience doesn't trouble him when helping the resistance, he is calm when caught and executed. The other conflict that was prominent for me this time was that of Manfredi's girlfriend who ends up betraying him and his friends. It's as powerful and a brutal film about war and a masterpiece.

I then watched Paisan, it doesn't pack the same wallop, being filmed in episodes, in different cities as the Allies fight their way up Italy. They most poignant story to me was the Rome story, the girl picking up soldiers to make money to live brings home a very drunk soldier, someone she's met on his first day in Rome, things were different then, she didn't have to walk the streets to feed her family. The soldier is dissillusioned, he'd met an innocent girl the day he arrived in Rome but now he's surrounded by this girl's type. In his drunken stupor he doesn't realise that this girl is the one girl he's been looking for. She leaves him with the madam and a note about where to meet his girl, when he wakes the next morning he's given the note but doesn't believe and throws it away.

All the episodes in Paisan show the destruction of war, the effect it has on ordinary men and women who still have to live in the war zone and try to get by. It shows the bewilderment of the young soldiers sent to rid Italy of the Germans.

[charliechaplinfan]

If that is what Paisan showed me, Germany Year Zero carried on the theme, this time in Germany and through the eyes of a little boy. This time there was no change of pace as the episodes changed. The film starts in a cemetery, our hero working to get a little money for his sick father, sister and older brother who is in hiding because he fought to the bitter end for Hitler. The boy gets discovered, he's so obviously underage and underfed, the others turn on him, he can't work he's too young, he's stealing their wages. The boy leaves to return home, passing a horse who has died by the side of the road, peopel hack away at it's flesh out of hunger. The film doesn't let up, the boy tries to make money ,his attempts sometimes pitiful, a lecherous old school teacher, his sister goes out nights to try and get money. I really want to reveal anything more of the plot, just to say that like Rome Open City, it's terrifically powerful and very thought provoking.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Rossellini's War Trilogy is the best overview of the genre and perhaps the idea of war in general. It shows all the horror and devastation, but asserts that principals and freedoms are worth fighting for, whereas many films push only a single theme to excess.

I'm working (very slowly) on a project that includes Open City, so I really don't want to say too much about the movie or these films here, but I will say that seeing them can be a life changing experience.

Incidentally, there is a torture scene where Manfredi is burned with an acetylene torch. In a rare shot edited out of most prints, you actually see the flame burn across his chest--is this included in the new Criterion version?

[charliechaplinfan]

I'll check that out for you Mr Arkadin, I have a tendency to look away at torture scenes. I've wondered if the version I'd watched previously was different to this one as I got something very different from this viewing. I'll perhaps expand more when I don't have kids running around

Was Rome Open City the film that brought Italian Neo realism to the west? L'Ossessione, I think was made before Open City.

I'm very interested in your experiment, I look forward to the time when you can share more with us.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Was Rome Open City the film that brought Italian Neo realism to the west? L'Ossessione, I think was made before Open City.

L'Ossessione is a great film, but it was made during the war. Neo-realism was created in the wake of WWII after all the studios had been destroyed. Directors and cameramen took to the streets, finding their stories among everyday people (and using them as well), with the ruins of their cites as backdrop.

Open City is credited as the first neo-realism film (although it is more of a melodrama) and also opened the western market to the idea that foreign works could make money and have an audience in the States. In fact, Rossellini's film was not doing well in Italy at that time and outside critical response helped it garner several awards inspiring more of these works.

There's a wonderful documentary called My Voyage to Italy (1999) by Martin Scorcese which is a great crash course in neo-realism.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'll look out for that documentary, I think I've read about it before but it hasn't had a DVD release.

The theme of Christianity and the central character of the priest make the movie resonate for me. The priest is contradictory, in one way he doesn't behave as a priest should behave, a priest should obey the law and encourage his flock to do right, not wrong. Yet, there is a strong feeling in this film and others that portray the Nazi's that although not obeying the law, he is being true to Christ and Christian teachings by being on the side of good and to obey the rules laid down by the Nazi's is carrying out evil. The priest does what he can to help his fellow countrymen which eventually means that he joins the resistance and helps in the fight between good and evil. It's this contradiction that fascinates me.

In a country destroyed like Italy, class and prejudice don't seem to matter anymore, ordinary people bond together, the young and the old, the men and women trying as they can to thwart the enemy and survive as they can. Even the kids get in on the act triggering their own explosion. The innocent (the children) and the pure (the priest) use their positions to resist the German occupation.

I love the scene in the film when he goes into the apartments just before Pina is shot and the soldiers go in behind him convinced that he isn't seeing a sick man. The priest is so calm and the boy takes his cue from him, he too is calm even though they are in great danger. The children in Rossellini's films see terrible things, it makes one think.

[Mr. Arkadin]

I'll look out for that documentary, I think I've read about it before but it hasn't had a DVD release.

You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/yayr76n

Or you can watch the whole thing on youtube:

[youtube][/youtube]

The theme of Christianity and the central character of the priest make the movie resonate for me. The priest is contradictory, in one way he doesn't behave as a priest should behave, a priest should obey the law and encourage his flock to do right, not wrong. Yet, there is a strong feeling in this film and others that portray the Nazi's that although not obeying the law, he is being true to Christ and Christian teachings by being on the side of good and to obey the rules laid down by the Nazi's is carrying out evil. The priest does what he can to help his fellow countrymen which eventually means that he joins the resistance and helps in the fight between good and evil. It's this contradiction that fascinates me.

Open City is clearly The Passion of the Christ translated to the war genre and there are lots of interesting things in the film that have connections to The Gospels.

In his confrontation with Nazi Bergman, Don Pietro makes it clear that he obeys a higher law--charity, or perhaps a better translation would be kindness, since we don't use the word in the same way today.

Here's a clip from the interrogation sequence. Note the shadow of a hand press, a device of torture projected on the wall behind Bergman. We had seen this instrument earlier on the table, but in shadow form is seems to resemble a scale, measuring the just and unjust. You'll also see Manfredi spread crucifixion-style, The young boys who return Don Pietro's whistle (as he refereed their games), and lots of other things that I'm not going to write about here (otherwise, I wouldn't have anything to include in my essay):

WARNING! This clip shows the climax and end of the film.

[youtube][/youtube]

[charliechaplinfan]

I checked out the disc on Amazon.co.uk, it's affordable and will be on my birthday list. Thanks Mr Arkadin. I'm going to check out the clip.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'd never thought of the story in relation to the Passion story. Manfredi is seen in a crucified position like Christ on the cross, is this why the film is said to be pro communism because it shows the crucified Manfredi the communist and likens him to Christ. Yet the thing that makes Manfredi great isn't that communism but his work against the occupiers and I think that's how the majority would see him, a resistance fighter first, a communist second. I also see references that link Don Pietro to Christ, mostly with the children, his followers.

[Mr. Arkadin]

I think both men are shown to be Christ-figures. This is foreshadowed in the scene where the Germans bring two sheep to the cafe and kill them by shooting them in the head with a pistol, which indicates the type of death Don Pietro will suffer, but it also has a parallel in scripture which relates to Manfriedi. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of the suffering and death of the coming Messiah:

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. Isaiah 53:7

Manfredi is the man who would not talk to save himself. Don Pietro is the man who not only infuses Manfredi with his prayers, but gives him absolution upon his death (much like Christ did with the thief on the cross). He also cradles Pina in death, in a recreation of the Pietà:

[charliechaplinfan]

You're really making me dig deeper into this film and I like that, it's making me think more about the imagery. Do you think it was all thought out this way by Rossellini or do you think it was from his subconscious?