Open City
by Roberto Rossellini
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Nando Bruno, Vito AnnichiaricoDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Roberto Rossellini
Writer: Roberto Rossellini
Producer: Ferruccio De Martino
Producer: Giuseppe Amato
Writer: Alberto Consiglio
Writer: Federico Fellini
Writer: Sergio Amidei
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1997-11-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Open City
Movie Review: Almost a Documentary because its so REAL
Summary: 5 Stars
Roma, citta aperta or Open City is another great movie about Nazi Germany. I have recommended this along with Olympia, Triumph of the Will, Night and Fog, Metropolis and The Power of Nightmares.
This one takes place in Nazi occupied Rome. The film was made only months after the Allied Forces had pushed the Nazis out. Roberto Rossellini began writing it just two months after the Nazis evacuated and was filmed in the actual locations. It is probably the most moving part of the film, it is ALL REAL! It's more of a documentary in that respect.
Summary of Open City
The stars play an impoverished mother-to-be and a parish priest whose loyalties are tested by the sinister German forces that occupy their homeland during World War II.The Allies had barely driven the Nazis out of Rome when Roberto Rosselini went to work on Open City, considered by most to be his greatest work. Shot on bits and short ends of scavenged film, this film helped define Italian neorealism. Audiences were convinced that the actors were all amateurs (they weren't) and the whole film was improvised (it wasn't; the three screenwriters included Federico Fellini). With its semidocumentary camera style and use of actual locations, the film does feel very real. Of course, so does the opening half-hour of Saving Private Ryan, and like that film Open City is at its heart a classic war yarn any Hollywood studio would feel at home with. The story involves members of the Italian underground trying to smuggle badly needed cash out of Nazi-occupied Rome to partisan fighters in the mountains, while the Nazis are hunting down one of the underground, a notorious freedom fighter and seditionist. Anna Magnani (an actor well established in her own country who became an international star with this film) is often singled out for her portrayal as the pregnant, unwed woman who gets caught up in the action on her wedding day, but the entire cast is topnotch. The sparse subtitles are both a blessing and a curse--there is less to read, which allows the viewer to concentrate on the visuals, but there are times when non-Italian-speakers will feel like they're missing out on some juicy dialogue. --Geof Miller
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