Rome, Open City (1945) Roma, città aperta (original title)

Director:

Roberto Rossellini

Writers:

Sergio Amidei (screenplay) and
Federico Fellini (collaboration on screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

27 September 1945 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his friend Francesco's...

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Nazi | German | Widow | Gestapo

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 6 wins

Cast

Aldo Fabrizi	...	Don Pietro Pellegrini
Anna Magnani	...	Pina
Marcello Pagliero	...	Giorgio Manfredi aka Luigi Ferraris
Vito Annichiarico	...	Piccolo Marcello
Nando Bruno	...	Agostino the Sexton
Harry Feist	...	Major Bergmann
Giovanna Galletti	...	Ingrid
Francesco Grandjacquet	...	Francesco
Eduardo Passarelli	...	Neighborhood Police Sergeant (as Passarelli)
Maria Michi	...	Marina Mari
Carla Rovere	...	Lauretta
Carlo Sindici	...	Police Commissioner
Joop van Hulzen	...	Captain Hartmann (as Van Hulzen)
Ákos Tolnay	...	Austrian Deserter (as A. Tolnay)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ferruccio Amendola	...	Piccolo Marcello (voice) (uncredited)
Rosetta Calavetta	...	Lauretta (voice) (uncredited)
Gualtiero De Angelis	...	Francesco (voice) (uncredited)
Caterina Di Furia	...	Woman in street scene (uncredited)
Laura Clara Giudice	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Turi Pandolfini	...	Grandfather (uncredited)
Giulio Panicali	...	Major Fritz Bergmann (voice) (uncredited)
Amalia Pellegrini	...	Nannina (uncredited)
Spartaco Ricci	...	Geman motorcyclist (uncredited)
Roswita Schmidt	...	Ingrid (voice) (uncredited)
Doretta Sestan	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Alberto Tavazzi	...	The Priest (uncredited)

Directed by
Roberto Rossellini

Writing credits
Sergio Amidei		screenplay and
Federico Fellini		collaboration on screenplay &
Roberto Rossellini		collaboration on screenplay
Sergio Amidei		story and
Alberto Consiglio		additional material &
Roberto Rossellini		additional material

Produced by
Giuseppe Amato	....	producer (uncredited)
Ferruccio De Martino	....	producer (uncredited)
Rod E. Geiger	....	producer (uncredited)
Roberto Rossellini	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Renzo Rossellini

Cinematography by
Ubaldo Arata

Film Editing by
Eraldo Da Roma
Jolanda Benvenuti		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Rosario Megna

Production Management
Ferruccio De Martino	....	production manager
Mario Del Papa	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sergio Amidei	....	assistant director
Federico Fellini	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Raffaele Del Monte	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Stefano Ballirano	....	digital restoration supervisor (restored version)
Stefano Camberini	....	digital restoration artist (restored version)
Pablo Mariano Picabea	....	film recording (restored version)
Paolo Verrucci	....	digital color grading restoration (restored version)
Stefanacci	....	visual effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Vincenzo Seratrice	....	camera operator

Music Department
Luigi Ricci	....	orchestra conductor

Other crew
Vincenzo Genesi	....	laboratory manager: Tecnostampa (as V. Genesi)
J. Tuzzi	....	continuity
Ferruccio Amendola	....	voice dubbing: Vito Annichiarico (uncredited)
Rosetta Calavetta	....	voice dubbing: Carla Rovere (uncredited)
Gualtiero De Angelis	....	voice dubbing: Francesco Grandjacquet (uncredited)
Pietro Di Donato	....	subtitler: English (uncredited)
Lauro Gazzolo	....	voice dubbing: Marcello Pagliero (uncredited)
Giulio Panicali	....	voice dubbing: Harry Feist (uncredited)
Roswita Schmidt	....	voice dubbing: Giovanna Galletti (uncredited)
Herman G. Weinberg	....	subtitler: English (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Excelsa Film

Distributors

• Minerva Film (1945) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Arthur Mayer & Joseph Burstyn (1946) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• C. F. R. (1946) (France) (theatrical) (16 mm)
• France-Europe Films (1946) (France) (theatrical)
• Francinex (1946) (France) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1952) (USA) (TV) (dubbed and edited version)
• Kinowelt Filmverleih (1961) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Pagode Films, La (1966) (France) (theatrical) (reissue)
• Films Italsud (1969) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Connoisseur Video Collection (1991) (USA) (VHS) (subtitled)
• Image Entertainment (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Films sans Frontières (2001) (France) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• FIS (2005) (France) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Flamingo Video (2011) (Italy) (DVD) (also Blu-Ray)
• Arthaus Filmverleih (????) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Film International (????) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Pagode Films, La (????) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Pons-filmi (????) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Suomi-Filmi (????) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Tralag (????) (Finland) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Altomedia. Co. Ltd. (????) (Korea) (DVD)
• Altomedia. Co. Ltd. (????) (Korea) (VHS)
• CDE Home Video (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• DomoVideo (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Eden Video (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Gruppo Editoriale Bramante (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Kino Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• M & R (????) (Italy) (VHS) (On "Il grande cinema. Cinecittà")
• Mondadori Video (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Nuova Eri (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Skema (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Video Award Motion Pictures (198?) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Fono Roma  sound re-recording

Also Known As:

"Roma, città aperta" - Italy (original title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:Approved | West Germany:(Banned) (1950-1961) | Germany:12 (cut) (DVD rating) | West Germany:16 (re-rating) (cut) | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | USA:Not Rated | France:U

Filming Locations:

Galleria Sciarra, 23 Via Pietro Cavallini, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Excelsa Film

Trivia:

Despite his name in the credits, Eraldo Da Roma did not edit this film, as he was in prison at the time. It was cut in very difficult conditions by Jolanda Benvenuti. This is what she reveals in Paolo Isaja and Maria Pia Melandri's documentary _Jolanda e Rossellini - Memorie indiscrete (1995)_.

Quotes:

Hartman:25 years ago, I commanded firing squads in France. I was a young officer. I believed then, too, in a German "master-race." But the French patriots also died without talking. We Germans simply refuse to believe that people want to be free.
Major Bergman:[Taken aback] You're drunk, Hartman!
Hartman:Yes, I'm drunk... I get drunk every night to forget. It doesn't help. We can't get anywhere but kill, kill, kill! We have sown Europe with corpses... and from those graves rises an incredible hate... HATE!... everywhere hate! We are being consumed by hatred... without hope.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Splendor (1989)

Soundtrack:

Mallinata Fiorentina

The beginning of the movement neorealist Italian, with a plea to the honesty.

The city of Rome is occupied by the Nazis, and the fearsome Gestapo thought only arrest "Manfredi", a member of the National Committee of liberation. "Marina" offers refuge in his house to "Manfredi" and to any of his fellow, but they are discovered and the Germans surround the house in which hides the resistance leader and his comrades. Some manage to escape by the roofs, but "Manfredi" is arrested...

Rossellini raised a film deeply moral, humanist and committed to him the dignity (frequent subject him), closeness, sense of reality, sincerity, the trend to the sincerity would be a constant in his films. Rossellini achieved with very few means, a cinema spontaneous and close to the situations that generated the Nazi barbarism. The film has elements documentaries despite being a movie narrative of great precision and nothing artificial; get a lively naturalness that will create style. We are on the first artistic expression of acquired Italian, one of the fundamental movements of the history of cinema.

This film shows us a cinema focused on the privacy of the characters and relationships, regardless of its format almost documentary, the story of Romans who refuse to sit before the conceited German occupation is credible, plausible and, above all honest. The honesty is, therefore, a determining factor. "Roma, città aperta " is a good manifesto against any ideology that try to undermine the freedom and human rights.

In " Roma, città aperta " can sympathize with some characters and repudiate to others, from the vital and racial "Pina" until the treacherous and amanerado "Bergmann", the committed "Don Pietro", an incorruptible "Giorgio", the fickle "Marina" This film had to litigate for many years throughout Europe with the intransigence of those who saw it as a film subversive and scandalous. Not only by the hardness of some images (the death of "Pina", and the torture of "Giorgio") but also for daring Rossellini playing taboo subjects (the drug addiction and the homosexuality of "Marina") in a time when the cinema classic would, in other ways.

Roberto Rossellini gave the touch of departure to the neorealist Italian movement with this war drama filmed soon after the Nazi occupation in Italy, and when the most devastating war in the history still raged Europe and other areas of the world. This film falls between those brave testimonies of fascist horror that some directors dared to launch the world in those years of terror. Among them, we remember Chaplin ("The great dictator") and Rossellini.

Rossellini toured the streets of Rome collecting terrible stories of suffering popular and wrote the script in collaboration with Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei and Alberto Consiglio. He hired amateur players who had not acted ever, with the exception of large professional actors as Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi. The screenplay is based on a real fact, in the work of a Catholic priest who helped the Italian resistance, In the determination of a priest who does not allow to miss the Nazi barbarism without acting. In the maturity of some children who have learned to hate, in the treason In the immorality. All this is perceived in the tension of the face of Anna Magnani, temperamental actress who was a film icon of humble people.