Open City
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Movie Reviews of Open City
Movie Review: The beginning of modern cinema
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was considered revolutionary in its day and it's still deeply moving, upsetting and powerful. Shot in the first half of 1945 in the weeks after the liberation of Rome by the Americans from the Nazis, it is raw and immediate, telling of events that are searingly fresh in the minds of the director and actors. Roberto Rosselini had to struggle against a lack of money and a chronic lack of film with which to shoot his masterpiece. He scrabbled to find both and put together a movie that is all the more searing precisely because it has none of the smooth studio production values of Hollywood.
"Rome Open City" tells of the days when the Italian capital was occupied by Nazis. The main characters are a priest and a resistance leader who is both a communist and an atheist. They are thrown together fighting for the same cause. I will not give away the ending but suffice it to say that both are captured and both endure horrific sufferings. The camera does not flinch or look away. It tells the story in all its horror, forcing the audience to see the entire truth.
Anna Magnani plays the other main character -- an earthy "woman of the people" trying to get by, to protect her son and to create for herself a life in which she can achieve some happiness despite the dire conditions. She delivers a down-to-earth performance that is all the more powerful for being so understated.
Rosselini used amateurs and was the first to shoot entirely on location. The bomb-damaged city provides an unforgettable backdrop. This genre of movie-making was later entitled "noveau realism" -- but it's proper title ought to be just "realism."
The extras included in the dvd set are particularly useful and informative in providing a look at how the movie was made and its historical effect on the art of film-making.
Movie Review: Birth of a new cinematic idiom
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a great treat on many levels. There is the story, of course, about the Italian underground during the period that the Germans took over from Mussolini, essentially occupying what was an ally. This was undertaken when the population had tired of fascism and expecting the war to end without il Duce. To hasten their exit, Italian partisans began to violently oppose the regime, which fought back with the methods that everyone knows. It is a riveting story, complete with slow-working spies who seek weaknesses in those connected to the resistance, exploiting loneliness or discontent and seducing them to inadvertent betrayals. In this, the actors - many of whom were not professionals - are simply wonderful, from the androgynous operative who preys on young women to brutal soldiers. Also, the partisans are very interesting types, though I don't want to reveal secrets in the plot.
Historically, this is an important film, a lodestar for neo-realism and in the next decade, the New Wave. In many ways, it is anti-hollywood: the scenes are stark and sometimes of real street scenes, the camera often hand held, and the realism is coldly stark. There is no glitz, nothing sentimental sudden romances though sensitive to the feelings of all the characters, and the good guys don't necessarily get away or even win. It is tragic, unjust, and brutally honest. This perspective spoke to Europeans, the survivors of WW II, and decisively influenced all film that followed.
Owning this is a must for any film buff or collector. Warmly recommended.
Movie Review: A most enduring and powerful classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Open City is a classic that nearly defies classification of genre. Although hailed by serious critics as a neorealist masterpiece, and understandably so, it's strength, ironically, lies in its starker resemblence to melodrama, similar to Luchino Visconti's The Damned.
What makes Open City a masterpiece is not only its trim, forceful screenplay but Rossellini's ability to utilize the wartime, grainy film stock and presence of the actual, newly defeated fascist army to portray a sense of immediate reality of the occupation and those who so courageously fought against the fascists.
Open City's plot and characters are black and white, figuratively as well as literally because, to the courageous resistance fighters in fascist occupied Rome, there was no luxury of quibbling over nuances and perspective. This is what fascism did to art in the 1940s. Rossellini utilized this effect to his artistic advantage.
Rossellini's filmmaking style also includes his meticulously judicious use of closeups, which is still one of the most meticulous of any director to this day. The closeups are used to convey sharp changes in emotion, as vehicles to advance the story at crucial moments.
This film is an enduring film classic that should be seen by not only students of film but all young people. Open City's stark characterization need to be understood in the context of the situation. Audiences can, with hindsight, make good sense of Rossellini's choices and contextualize them as they gain appreciation for this beauty of film classics.
Movie Review: Life and strength.
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is often considered one of the first to come out of the Italian Neo-Realism movement, and to a degree it's debatable but in the larger sense I can see where that epithet comes from. This movie is largely a humanistic heroic statement, but its focus is on the utter importance of life... life that is free and unabused.
The setting is Nazi-occupied Rome, the characters, a bunch of Roman citizens who live day by day under the shadow of the Reich. Key to the action is a priest who practices civil disobedience; his friend, a revolutionary; and a pregnant woman who plans to marry the revolutionary. They all try to figure out what's important to them while the Gustapos search for any signs of rebellion, thus putting pressure on their day to day life.
The real mix that helps make this film really empathetic is its focus on heroic inner strength, which can seem to make matters of real life seem lesser, for the purpose of maintaining free and unconflicted life, which it illustrates as most important. Thus the mere act of living is the goal, and the martyr of a hero so others can live the romance. It's quite beautiful really.
It also adds bits of light humor amidst moments of tragedy in a rather grateful way, thus keeping it from being just cynical and depressing. Overall, it really does take the time to care for the simple natures of noteworthy characters.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: Five stars for the film - Four stars for the DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an awesomely powerful film - great movie! This is a must-see film for all movie fans worldwide. I loved the characters! They are so memorable - wonderful characters!There are so many subtleties in this film, such as the "inverted" sexuality of the evil Nazi leaders, the cooperation of the Catholic clergy and the Communist rebels, the "good wife" vs her wanna-be starlet younger sister, the future of Italy expressed by the children at the end of the film, etc that it takes several viewings to absorb it all, but the ride is worth it.
The DVD is mastered at somewhat less than perfect standards however and the subtitling is part of the film and not overlaid and clearer in image unfortunately. There are no extras on the DVD, nor is there an audio-commentary track which would have been a wonderful addition! (Maybe next time).
Still, this is a brilliant film and I highly recommend it!!!