OPEN CITY (ROMA, CITTA APERTA) (director: Roberto Rossellini; screenwriters: Federico Fellini/Sergio Amedei; cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; editor: Eraldo De Roma; cast: Anna Magnani (Pina), Aldo Fabrizi (Priest, Don Pietro), Marcello Pagliero (Luigi Ferrari/Giorgio Manfredi), Maria Michi (Marina), Henry Feist (Major Bergmann), Vito Annichiarico (Marcello, Pina's Son), Eduardo Passarelli (The Neighborhood Police Sergeant), Carla Rovere (Lauretta), Francesco Grandjacquet (Francesco), Giovanna Galletti (Ingrid), Nando Bruno (Agostino, Sexton), Įkos Tolnay (Austrian Deserter); Runtime:101; 1946-Italy)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Filmed in the harsh conditions of 1945 Rome, when Italy was just liberated from the German occupation, a movie such as "Open City" was not a priority in the postwar period. All the country's money was needed to rebuilt, as movies seemed a frivolous activity at the time. Rossellini used poor film stock leftover from the Fascists and filmed despite all the technical deficiencies he ran into, and came up with a gritty, authentic looking film for his grim story of survival and fight for freedom. This was a breakthrough film for the director, whose neorealism style, using a Hollywood type of narrative and a documentary style approach to filming, caught the dire mood of the Resistance movement and the ordinary people who fought the fascists. It is a melodramatic story about good and evil, with the poor, suffering, hardworking people being good, and those who sold their soul for money, luxury, vice, betrayal, or false ideals, were the evil ones. It also showed how the Resistance fighters were members of the Communist party and were atheists, while their sometime partners, the Catholic church, were their opposite but still sided with them due to the horrible suffering the people faced.
Awards such as the New York Film Critics Circle and Best Film in Cannes in 1946, came to this film. It awakened an international audience to the knowledge that Italian cinema was well and Roberto Rossellini was a director to be reckoned with, along with De Sica, who just filmed "Shoe Shine" in the neorealism style, also, to international acclaim.
Idealistic Resistance leader Manfredi (Pagliero) is on the run, his group got word that there is an informer among them. He goes to the apartment of a sympathizer Francesco (Grandjacquet), who can help the cause through his trade as a printer, as he transfers money into a book for shipment to those Resistance fighters in the field. But since Manfredi can't go himself to carry out this assignment, he asks for help. Francesco's pregnant girlfriend lives next door to him, Pina (Magnani). She lives in poverty with her extended family, and her young son Marcello (Vito) and a sister Lauretta (Carla) who is aspiring to be an actress and is ashamed of her impoverished family. The widow Pina is earthy, the quintessence of Italian femininity, plus she's a nurturing mother. She believes in God and is ashamed she became pregnant before getting married, but is happy that she will marry Francesco tomorrow. She returns with a bag full of bakery items, as her neighbors looted the bakery. When asked by Manfredi, she sends her son to get the local priest, Don Pietro (Fabrizi), who is sympathetic to the Resistance movement to come over, and he agrees to take the dangerous assignment Manfredi asks him to do.
Manfredi has been fooling around with an attractive but insincere actress, Marina (Michi), a friend of Lauretta's. But he finds her thirst for money to be something he can't live with anymore, and tries to get word to her that he wants to break up.
The Gestapo, under a paricularly malevolent Major Bergmann (Feist), raids Pina's building and arrests Francesco for routine questioning on his wedding day. Pina is alarmed by this and runs in the street after him, but gets shot down by the Nazis chasing the lorry he's in. When Francesco is released, he joins Manfredi in Marina's luxurious apartment, as they are desperate for a place to stay. She overhears them talking about meeting the priest and turns this information over to the major's cold-hearted assistant Ingrid (Giovanna Galletti), who plies Marina with clothes, theater work, and money. The information proves correct and they capture the priest, Manfredi, and a deserting Austrian soldier (Įkos Tolnay), as the the priest supplied them with false I.D. cards to escape the country.
In a very brutal conclusion, Manfredi is tortured to get information out of him, the deserter hangs himself, and the priest is executed by a firing squad. The film has an immediacy about it, but it also seemed overly melodramatic at times, relying so much on the premise, that by being as good as the Germans, the Italians, the slave-race, can prove that there was no need for the war since there is no such thing as a master race. That Manfredi dies without talking after being tortured, makes his heroics larger than anyone else's, and proves that the Italians are every bit as good as the Germans. Rossellini hoped to examine the Italian soul and show that there were both good and bad people among them, while the German's have gone so far off the edge of sanity, that it is hard to find a good German because of their perverse beliefs.
Through the portrayal of the Gestapo torturer Feist and his sidekick Galletti, the Germans are viewed as perverse homosexuals and godless animals who have lost their sense of what it is to be human. They can only relate to others in an obscene way.
Anna Magnani gives the film credibility through her humanity, as her story is filled with her heartfelt yearnings. The other professional actor among all the nonprofessionals to standout, was the priest role as warmly played by Aldo Fabrizi, who elicited a call for sensibility and caring for people. Though, the film does not seem as relevant as it was when first released and acclaimed as a masterpiece, having lost some of its purity, nevertheless, it still retains its moral high ground and its ability to show the collective will of the people, who resisted being oppressed. It is still a work of considerable merit.
REVIEWED ON 9/3/2000 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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