Rome, Open City (1945)

After Mussolini's ouster from power in mid 1943 it was not long before the remaining Italian government found its self no longer capable of defending the capital and declared it an 'open city', a Nazi occupying force quickly took over and held Rome until the Allies took it in June of 44'. Six months later Roberto Rossellini begin the filming of Rome, Open City based on a screen play co-written by Frederico Fellini, which came about as a fictionalized amalgam of what started as two different documentary projects, one a film about the patriot priest Don Pieto Morosini who assisted the resistance in the' open city' days and was killed by the Nazi's, and another about Roman children who fought the Nazi's during the occupation. With the Italian film industry literally in ruins Rome, Open City was made on the cheap, used real locations, and mostly non-professional actors.

The movie is a slice of life tale about occupied Rome, it tells the stories of a number of different players in the resistance, including a patriot priest (an impressive performance by Aldo Fabrizi), an atheist resistance fighter (Marcello Pagliero) and his pregnant semi-lapsed Catholic fiancé (Anna Magnani, amazing performance) as well as a group of young boys who have formed themselves into a resistance unit, but whose use of home made bombs on occupying targets ultimately draws unwanted Nazi attention to the tenement complex where most of the characters live. A very important early example of what became known as the Italian neo-realist school of film making, Rome, Open City is a dynamic, heart felt, jagged, character infused, tale of courage, all the more remarkable for the hard circumstances of its production, and its incredible proximity in time to the resistance, I mean all involved were making a movie that could have gotten them executed for treason less then a year before. An important and fantastically good film that would be an important addition to anyone's film literacy. ****