My Italian Neo-Realism Picks - No. 3 (Rome, Open City)

Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City, released in 1945 and directed by Roberto Rossellini, follows Giorgio Manfredi, a resistance leader chased by Nazis to seek refuge and escape from the Nazi occupation in Rome. An "Open City" is a city to be excluded from military operations. "Open City" status was established after the surrender of the Italians when the Germans advanced into the Roman territory in fall 1943. However, the Germans immediately disregarded this. Roberto Rossellini meant this as an ironic connotation when titling his film.

Rossellini himself had ties with Fascist propaganda in the past, making a "fascist trilogy” before Rome, Open City. Fascism is inherently different from Nazism and found many supporters amongst the Italian people. Most found some ideology that they could relate to; for Rossellini, it was the fascist sense of nationalism, patriotism, loyalty, bravery, and efficiency concerning the war. During the years of Occupation, from September 1943 – April 1945, the sentiments changed, and the Italians came to understand the nature of their government. When confronted with Rossellini's Pre-Open City work under the fascist regime, Rossellini says, “You must remember what cinema was in those days. If you didn’t wear the tiara on your head, have the staff in your hand, have the cross, the ring, then you didn’t make films.” To him, supporting fascism was essential to his ability to create great works of art. Rossellini found his resistance to the regime through his work inside of it.

The film was received as a documentary, although this is mainly false. However, commissioned first as a documentary by Don Morosini, a former military chaplain who worked within a partisan group. Rome, Open City, was filmed under the worst conditions possible. The occupying Germans had barely just left the city, and the studio had recently been bombed, which forced Rossellini to film on-site, giving it a documentary feel. Furthermore, since the German OccupationOccupation was still fresh in the minds of its civilians, the events were close to the people's minds and consciousness. Because of this, the residents welcomed production as they felt the film was about them and their experiences. Shot on 16 mm was developed to capture news footage during the war as the German Arri SB was lighter than most cinema cameras and allowed for easy transportation.

Along with these reasons, Rome, Open City was also represented as a documentary. This is partly because the first installment of Rossellini’s fascist trilogy was The White Ship (1941), a mix of documentary and drama about a hospital ship paid for by De Robertis, the head of film propaganda by the Italian Naval Ministry. The film uses nonprofessional actors but real locations and is influenced by the chorality of Russian filmmaker Eisenstein's shots of a collective of men in the workplace. Shooting on location and use of non-actors overlap in Rome, Open City. In addition to that overlap, the film has an overall grainy look due to a mixture of poor development and processing of the 16mm films and various film stocks used. The rough look added to the feeling of documentary style.

Rome, Open City, featured both historical events and people. The film priest is based on two priests who had been arrested and killed in 1944: Morosini, who had stolen plans for German deployment in monte casino and gave them to allies. D. Papagallo had run a school for children homeless by the bombing of a district in 1943. Betrayed by Italian spies, D. Papagallo was shot on orders from the SS, reckoning from a grenade that had killed 33 Germans. An Austrian deserter who managed to escape and tied to D. Papagallo said he blessed those about to be shot. In the Spring of 1944, when a partisan bomb killed 33 Nazi soldiers, Hitler ordered the execution of ten men for each German. Since not enough Jews or Partisans were available in the jails, men were grabbed off the streets to accommodate the order, and D Papagallo was one of these men. Rome, Open City, also follows Maria Gullace, a pregnant woman who was shot and focused on children who had been active against the Germans.

Rome, Open City, is a prime example of anti-fascist cinema. Rosselini made several anti-fascist movies early on in his career, but this was the first to present its themes explicitly. Even though he came from fascist ideologies early in his career, he was able to express himself from within the system and dismantle it. Using actual locations destroyed from the war and employing non-actors, he presented a realistic picture of the aftermath of World War II as experienced by the Italians. Rossellini's inventiveness defined a movement and inspired generations of filmmakers to come.

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