Rome, open city ( Rome, città aperta ) is an Italian filmdirected by Roberto Rossellini in the year 1945 . Together with Bicycle Thief , it is considered the masterpiece of Italian neorealism .
The action takes place in Rome , in the last years of the Nazi occupation : 1943 and 1944 . It is inspired by the true story of the priest Luigi Morosini, tortured and killed by the Nazis to help the resistance .
Argument
In Rome in 1943 and 1944, the stories of several people related to the Resistance are interwoven . During the occupation, Father Pietro protects the partisanos and, among others, gives asylum to a communist engineer: Manfredi. Pina, a village woman, is engaged to a typographer who fights in resistance. When the police arrest him, Pina runs desperately after the truck that takes him, but falls assassinated by a burst of machine gun before the eyes of his son. Shortly afterwards, Father Pietro and the engineer - who was betrayed by his former drug addict lover - are arrested. Manfredi dies from the atrocious tortures inflicted on him by the Germans to reveal the names of his resistance comrades. Father Pietro has the same fate: he is shot in the presence of the children of the parish, among whom is the orphaned son of Pina.
Production
Rossellini began working on the script in August 1944, just two months after the end of the German occupation, with the collaboration of Federico Fellini and Sergio Amidei . In his own words, he was driven by a strong need to recount recent events, and literally went out into the street to look for stories (the plot is based in part on real events). It began to be shot in January of 1945, as much in studies as in locations of the devastated city, being this last thing that would characterize the Neorealism. It would also be characteristic the use of extra-professional actors: of the actors of Rome, open city , they were only of the profession Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi .
Cast
- Aldo Fabrizi : Don Pietro Pellegrini.
- Anna Magnani : Pina.
- Marcello Pagliero : Giorgio Manfredi, alias Luigi Ferraris.
- Vito Annicchiarico: Marcello, son of Pina.
- Nando Bruno: Agostino, the sacristan.
- Harry Feist: Major Bergmann.
- Giovanna Galletti: Ingrid.
- Francesco Grandjacquet: Francesco.
- Eduardo Passarelli: the neighborhood police sergeant.
- Maria Michi: Marina Mari.
- Carla Rovere: Lauretta, sister of Pina.
- Carlo Sindici: the police commissioner.
- Joop van Hulzen: Captain Hartmann.
- Ákos Tolnay: the Austrian deserter.
Release
At its launch, the film was a victim of censorship. In the United States it was cut, reducing its duration in a quarter of an hour. In Argentina it was withdrawn from exhibition by an anonymous order of the government in 1947 . In West Germany it was banned from 1951 to 1960 .
Awards
- Palma de Oro at the Cannes Film Festival