Roma, città aperta (1945) - film review

Rome, during the Nazi occupation of 1943-44.  The Germans have declared Rome an open city but are intent on tracking down resistance leaders.  High up on their wanted list is Giorgio Manfredi, who is hiding under an assumed name in an apartment block with Francesco and his pregnant fiancée Pina.  Another resistance sympathiser is the Catholic priest Don Pietro Pellegrini, who delivers money to Manfredi’s supporters.   When the Germans uncover Manfredi hideout, Francesco is arrested and Pina is shot dead.   Manfredi flees to his mistress, Marina, but she only betrays him to the German police...

One of the most important films in the history of European cinema, Roma, città aperta marked the birth of the Italian neo-realist movement and, no less auspiciously, sparked American interest in foreign language cinema (which had prior to the end of the Second World War been virtually non-existent).  In a world still shocked by war, the film revealed an open wound in an uncompromisingly direct way, earning instant acclaim for its director.

What is now easily recognisable as a fine example of neo-realist cinema arose as a happy accident.  Shortly after the Nazis fled from Rome before the liberation, Roberto Rossellini decided to make a film with the limited resources at his disposal – some primitive film making equipment, low-grade film and non-professional actors selected from people he knew or met in the street.  The film’s rough and ready documentary style is at once striking in its depiction of human suffering and it is scarcely surprising that other directors were keen to adopt a similar approach in years that followed (most successfully Vittorio De Sica).

The only professional actor to appear in the film is Anna Magnani, a former dance-hall girl who would become an icon of Italian cinema in the following two decades.   Magnani’s performance serves perfectly the neo-realist style and the brutal death of her character provides the film with one of its most shocking and poignant moments.   Other memorable performances are provided by Aldo Fabrizi (the courageous priest) and Harry Feist (the smooth but venomous German officer).

The film’s mix of neo-realism and conventional melodrama appears awkward, particularly in the first half of the film.  However, the building intensity of the drama soon masks its imperfections and the spectator is ultimately gripped by the battle of wills between the German officer Bergmann and his worthier Italian opponents.  The final showdown, with its graphic depiction of torture, makes a powerful condemnation of Nazi brutality and offers a fitting tribute to those who fought and died for the liberation of their country.

© James Travers 2002

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