Era notte a Roma (1960)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Roberto Rossellini

Writers:

Sergio Amidei (writer)
Diego Fabbri (writer)

Release Date:

31 July 1960 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot Keywords:

English | Black Market | Concentration Camp | Former Priest | Italy

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Giovanna Ralli	...	Esperia Beli
Renato Salvatori	...	Renato Balducci
Leo Genn	...	Michael Pemberton
Sergei Bondarchuk	...	Fyodor Nazukov
Peter Baldwin	...	Peter Bradley
Paolo Stoppa	...	Principe Alessandro Antoniani
Enrico Maria Salerno	...	Dot. Costanzi
Hannes Messemer	...	Colonel Von Kleist
Sergio Fantoni
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Laura Betti
Rosalba Neri

Also Known As:

Évadés de la nuit, Les (France)
Blackout in Rome (International: English title)
Escape by Night (USA)
Wait for the Dawn (UK)

Runtime:

Italy:138 min | USA:82 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian | German | Russian | English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

International Goldstar

Epic account of a small tale

Can no one have seen this important Rossellini film? Astonishing it is to be the first to comment in these "pages" on a work by one of the major directors of world cinema (and for the second time -- no one else had commented on "Vanina Vanini" either). Apparently this 145 minute film (that is how it clocked in at the showing I attended) received very little distribution, and, though it is excellent, it is not hard to see why this was so. Its story of three Allied soldiers, one English, one American, one Russian, on the loose in an as-yet-unliberated Italy, is short on wild excitement, but filled with interesting detail and human warmth. Giovanna Ralli is marvelous (and would have been a marvelous Vanina Vanini, if only...) in a complex and emotional role. Peter Baldwin and Renato Salvatori are winningly handsome young men (and are rather lookalikes), and Leo Genn and Sergei Bondarchuk provide solid acting. Rossellini's use of the zoom to make possible "intercutting without cuts" is used to great effect in this film, and the scene in which the spy/informer eavesdrops on the confessional is especially masterful. One of Rossellini's last films before he decided to devote himself exclusively to the small screen, this film is sober, serious, worthy, and, withal, not lacking in value as entertainment.