Rome in 1944 waits eagerly for Allied liberation, but German occupation makes things unbearably grim. A loose activist network organizes resistance in the city: engineer Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero), the pregnant Pina (Anna Magnani), liberal priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi). Even Pina's adolescent son Marcello (Vito Annicchiarico) joins in, helping smuggle guns and explosives from outside partisans. But SS Chief Bergmann (Harry Feist) has tricks up his own sleeve, using informers and interrogation to smash subversives.
Neorealism got its start in Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1943), a bastardized adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice. But Rome: Open City established the genre firmly. Filming on a shoestring budget in early 1945, Rossellini captured remarkable footage of bombed-out Rome while the war raged elsewhere. The movie bombed domestically but garnered international acclaim, winning the jury prize at Cannes in 1946. Rosselini rounded out his "War Trilogy" with Paisan (1946) and Germany Year Zero (1948), catapulting him into the top tier of international filmmakers.
Rome: Open City's verisimilitude still impresses. Made just months after Rome's liberation, it's truly ahead of its time depicting bombed-out cityscapes and poverty. Italians riot over bread while Gestapo raids occur daily; hostile families are crowded into tiny tenements. What was technical necessity strikes an aesthetic chord: few films provided such raw, direct pictures of wartime destruction. Rossellini beautifully captures Italians' wartime cynicism: the Resistance seems ineffectual, while the Allies only prove their existence through bombing raids. Federico Fellini's episodic script allows for wonderful slice-of-life moments, like a kid's soccer game or Pina bickering with her sister.
Despite these authentic trappings, Rome isn't pure neorealism. For one, it features major stars Magnani and Fabrizi, a no-no in many genre works. Nor does Rossellini avoid melodramatic touches: in particular, Pina's romance with Francesco (Francesco Grandjacquet) tempts fate from the onset. Borrowing a page from wartime Hollywood potboilers (Hangmen Also Die!), Rossellini casts the Nazis as sexual deviants: Berger minces effeminately while spymaster Ingrid (Giovanna Galletti) seduces singer Marina (Maria Michi) with furs and booze. For better or worse it's more conventional than Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D.
Nor does Rome honestly address Fascism. Benito Mussolini's personality cult never achieved Hitler's pervasive success but neither was he actively opposed; Il Duce purged leftists, co-opted the Catholic and military, with most Italians carrying on indifferently. Rossellini's narrative pawns responsibility onto foreigners, as if the Black Shirts were mere quislings of the Third Reich. Perhaps Rossellini, a friend of Vittorio Mussolini active in prewar cinema, didn't feel comfortable tackling the issue head-on. Or perhaps Italians generally weren't ready to accept responsibility.
That said, Rome's dramatic power is undeniable. If Rossellini utilizes familiar archetypes they're handled iwth unusual skill and power. One comic scene of Pietro and Marcello hiding bombs from the Gestapo ends in a burst of unexpected tragedy. The second half settles in for a prolonged interrogation, with our heroes subjected to shockingly brutal torture. A partisan raid halfway through the film provides our heroes' only tangible victory. Rossellini's bleak anger presages any number of "enemy occupation" films from The Battle of Algiers to Army of Shadows.
Anna Magnani anchors the film's first half. Decidedly unglamorous, Magnani is beautifully effective as an ordinary person struggling to make a difference. Aldo Fabrizi matches Magnani, transforming Pietro from comic foil to tragic hero. The luminous Marla Michi reappeared in Rossellini's Paisan. Harry Feist and Giovanna Galletti make effective villains; Galletti gnawing seductively on a Fahrtenmesser sure makes a perverse image!
Rome: Open City makes for disturbing viewing. Rossellini's next two films adhere more stringently to neorealist expectations, and prove even darker. Classification aside, it's still a remarkable movie.
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