OPEN CITY (ROMA, CITTA APERTA) (1945) B/W 105m dir: Roberto Rossellini

w/Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcell Pagliero, Maria Michi, Harry Feist, Francesco Grandjacquet, Giovanna Galletti, Vito Annichiarico, Carla Revere, Nando Bruno

Rossellini's early neorealist masterpiece about Rome during the WWII occupation, as a priest aids the underground in repelling the Nazis.

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films: "Open City was planned in secret by Rossellini and his colleagues while the Nazis still occupied Rome. In order to avoid conscription by the Fascist government, Rossellini hid in a worker's apartment with Sergio Amidel [who authored the screenplay with Rossellini and Federico Fellini] and a communist leader of the resistance. In this way they were kept up to date with the activities and tragedies of the underground, many of which they incorporated into their script. The priest, Don Pedro, was modeled on Father Don Morosini who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.

"Rossellini said in 1956: 'We began our film only two months after the liberation of Rome, despite the shortage of film stock. We shot it in the same settings in which the events we re-created had taken place. In order to pay for my film I sold my bed, then a chest of drawers and a mirrored wardrobe ... Rome, Open City was shot silent, not by choice but by necessity. Film stock cost 60 liras a meter on the black market and it would have involved us in additional expense if we had recorded the sound. Also the Allied authorities had only given us a permit to produce a documentary film. After the film was edited, the actors dubbed their own voices.'

"It was to some extent the warm performance by Anna Magnani as the ungainly, gesticulating, but proud and dignified Pina that made the film's international popularity. Audiences everywhere were astonished to see ordinary people in an Italian film instead of the endless parade of Black Shirts, or romantic, frilly actors.

"The latter half of the film is weaker but it regains its power in the finale ... .

"Its realistic treatment of everyday Italian life heralded the postwar renaissance of the Italian cinema and the development of neorealism. In addition, as Rossellini jokingly said, 'Rome, Open City was worth more than the persuasion of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in helping Italy regain its place in the concert of nations.' As his country's spokesman, Rossellini showed that Italians had fought just as hard as anyone against fascism and for freedom."

As an interesting aside, this is the film that so impressed Ingrid Bergman when she saw it in America that she sought out its director, thereby kicking off one of the major Hollywood scandals of any decade by leaving her husband and daughter and becoming pregnant by Rossellini; she was denounced by the U.S. Senate for her actions and did not act in America for several years.

Except for Magnani, all the actors are non-professionals. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.