Yet, it wasn’t long (especially after the film shared the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival) before audiences, both Italian and international, began to recognize what a profound achievement Rome Open City represented, especially since Italian cinema had not been an international force since the super-spectacles of the silent era. Not only was it one of the first European films to depict the underground resistance during the war, but it looked and felt unlike anything that had preceded it. The necessities of wartime film production—virtually no money and no studio resources—forced Rossellini to make do with what he had, including the use of disparate types of film stock, which resulted in a rough, newsreel-like aesthetic that gave the story’s undeniably melodramatic tensions and clear-cut depictions of good and evil a sense of gritty reality and true gravity that was further fueled by the underlying anger of a nation in ruins.

The story, which is divided into two not entirely congruous parts, takes place in Rome during the Nazi occupation (the winter of 1943 to 1944, just before the liberation). The main characters—a Catholic priest named Don Peitro (Aldo Fabrizi), a communist resistance fighter named Giorgio Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero), and his friend’s pregnant fiancé Pina (Anna Magnani)—were loosely based on real-life personalities (in fact, the film was originally intended to be a documentary about Giuseppe Morosini, a priest martyr-hero of the resistance). The crux of the story is that Mandredi has been cornered by the Gestapo and is trying to remain hidden, an endeavor aided by Don Pietro and Pina and ultimately undermined by Mandredi’s opportunistic, drug-addicted mistress (Maria Michi). Screenwriters Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini wisely spread the sentiment among the major characters, all of whom are brilliantly played by unlikely actors (Fabrizi was a comedic player making his dramatic debut and Magnani was best known as a cabaret performer). They also recognize the emotional power of showing collaboration against a common enemy, which is why the alliance between Don Peitro and Manfredi, who represent the otherwise antithetical Catholic Church and communist party, respectively, is so effective.

Rome Open City is most frequently discussed as the film that brought the Italian neorealist movement, which arguably began with Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1942), to its artistic fruition, which is why it has been credited with inspiring everything from the French New Wave (Godard was a big fan) to the cinema-verité documentary style. Neorealism sought to document the realities of life in postwar Italy by rejecting the artificiality of the studio-based production style that characterized the fascist period and embracing handheld camerawork, nonprofessional actors, natural lighting, and, most importantly, location shooting. Neorealist filmmakers took to the streets quite literally, with Rossellini’s film leading the way.

Of course, such a history obscures the fact that Rome Open City engages with plenty of cinematic devices not often associated with neorealism, from the use of known stars in the lead roles, to the melodramatic contrivances of the plot. What is masterful about the film, then, is not its neorealist purity, but rather the way in which it used unconventional techniques to inject new life into old forms, in the process forging a cinema that would profoundly influence the rest of the world.

Rome Open City Criterion Collection DVD
Rome Open City is available exclusively as part of the three-disc “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy” box set (SRP $99.95), which also includes Paisan (1946) and Germany Year Zero (1948).
Aspect Ratio	1.37:1
Audio	Italian Linear PCM 1.0 monaural
Subtitles	English
Supplements	Audio commentary by film scholar Peter Bondanella Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963 Once Upon a Time . . . Rome Open City 2006 documentary Video interview with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà “Rossellini and the City” visual essay by film scholar Mark Shiel Video interview with film critic Father Virgilio Fantuzzi
Distributor	The Criterion Collection
SRP	$99.95 (box set)
Release Date	July 11, 2017
VIDEO & AUDIO
All three films in Criterion’s “War Trilogy” Blu-ray boxset have been given new, high-definition transfers that improve upon the already impressive DVD boxset they released back in 2010. That release made these important films, which previously were difficult if not impossible to find in anything other than awful condition, widely available to American viewers; Rome Open City and Paisan had been available in Region 1 in less-than-stellar DVD releases from Image, but Germany Year Zero had been MIA on DVD and had never been seen in the U.S. in its original version with German opening titles and a German-language soundtrack. Criterion has stepped up again, with each film getting a new digital restoration from improved sources: Rome Open City in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative and a 35mm fine-grain positive preserved at the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome; Paisan in 2K from a 35mm fine-grain positive preserved at the Cineteca Nazionale; and Germany Year Zero in high-definition from a 35mm fine-grain positive. The results are simply outstanding; although they still bear the gritty look of neorealism and there are some inconsistencies and flicker, the images are sharper and more detailed than we’ve ever seen, with most of the print damage, dirt, and debris having been digitally removed (some damage simply could not be fixed without doing further harm, but none of it is distracting). Contrast also looks better, with deeper blacks and improved shadow detail. The Blu-ray set also remedies the one complaint about the 2010 DVDs, which is that the films were all pictureboxed. All three soundtracks were mastered in 24-bit from the corresponding optical soundtracks from the 35mm prints (Rome Open City comes from the optical soundtrack negative) and digitally restored. Presented in Linear PCM monaural, they sound quite good, especially given their age and limited technology of the time. Rossellini preferred postsynchronization, rather than recording dialogue live, so the soundtracks (with the exception of Germany Year Zero, which was one of only three films that Rossellini recorded live) sometimes appear a bit awkward in terms of not being perfectly in step with the image.
SUPPLEMENTS
Criterion’s Blu-ray maintains all of the supplements that originally appeared on their 2010 DVD. The excellent audio commentary by film scholar Peter Bondanella (author of The History of Italian Cinema and The Cinema of Federico Fellini) was originally recorded in 1995 for the Criterion laserdisc release. Despite being 22 years old, the commentary still has tons of crucial insight into the film, as Bondanella illuminates both the film itself and the unique context in which it was made. Further information about the film’s production can be found in Once Upon a Time . . . Rome Open City, a 45-minute documentary made in 2006 that features rare material and footage, as well as a new interview with Isabella Rossellini and archival interviews with Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, and Roberto Rossellini. Rossellini also appears in a brief introduction to the film that was recorded for Italian television in 1963. Another excellent supplement is “Rossellini and the City,” a 25-minute visual essay in which film scholar Mark Shiel (author of Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City) discusses Rossellini’s groundbreaking use of the urban landscape in his War Trilogy. Finally, the disc includes video interviews with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà and Father Virgilio Fantuzzi, a film critic and Rossellini friend who discusses the filmmaker’s use of religion in his films.

Copyright ©2017 James Kendrick

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