Rome, Open City

Thursday 25th September 2008 | book tickets

1hr 41.  Italy 1945.  Directed by Roberto Rossellini.  English subtitles.

This film by Rossellini, one of the definitive works of the Italian neo-realist period, was shot under extremely difficult circumstances at the end of WWII. Its greatest achievement remais its study and placing of the Resistance movement - and on a wider level, the war itself - against a background of everyday events. The film evolved from a documentary about a priest serving in the Resistance, which perhaps accounts for its refusal to compromise or to entertain conventional notions of heroism.