Accattone (1961) Pasolini

After reading the chapter on Gramsci and the Italian Cinema, I noticed some strong Gramscian themes in Accattone, most notably the use of language and landscape. Linguistically the film was spoken in Roman dialect which was obvious in the characters' use of "man yar eh." The use of language not only set the tone for the movie giving it place and time,  but also spoke to the idea of education. These people, as was obvious by the way they spoke, were not particularly educated. Language was highly tied to education, as the more educated you were the more your language (way of speaking, being able to read and write), would show your education. The film also tightly tied the characters to their landscape and the way that they are a part of the landscape, navagating their way through it and always on the move. What was also important about the landscape was the lack of place that it gave to the film, a part of its "mythic" quality. There was nothing identifying about the landscape; instead it was the characters who defined it, who acted upon it in the sense that the landscape never changed but instead played the backdrop for the characters to act upon. 

Something I did not see in this movie that was presented in the reading was the idea that Accattone represented homosexuality while not acutally being homosexual in the film. I was curious to see how this would play out in the film, especially in the scene when he puts on a lady's hat. By the end of the film I found that the points people had mad in support of Accattone being a representation of homosexuality were vague at best. While the film is of course up to interpretation, the fact that Accattone seemed uninterested in sex with Stella or the fact that he put on the lady's hat don't really provide much evidence in support of this theory. These scenes could alternately be read as scenes where Accattone is asserting his masculinity but I also think showing his childishness. The scene of him putting on the womans hat reminded me a lot of something a child would do, whcih does not necessarily have homosexual unertones but instead shows Accattone's immaturity and lack of respect for women. The fact that he doesn't seem to be interested in engaging in a sexual rapport with Stella is a little more complicated however, but I believe this could also be read as his respect, but also his want to turn her into a prostitute. If he sleeps with her it would be harder for him to send her to the streets. 

Lastly and most notably, the scene of Accattone's death to me has highly ambiguous. I don't think it can be said whether he was saved or not. Although his outward efforts to change we obvious, I think the scene of his death represented a big question mark. We will never really know whether he repented or not and the scene leaves the viewer to decide whether Accattone was indeed Vittorio. 

Roberto Rossellini: Rome, Open City

I found Rome, Open City to be quite a fascinating film in its superb realism. The film was filmed on what film Rossellini could find, and was filmed on location, and on a low budget. It also had a very documentary type feel which made the film feel more realistic. Rossellini wasn’t known for his strong narratives, and Open City is no exception, but I found that the lack of narrative was what made the film what it is. It is a film about war, and Rossellini didn’t want this message to be drowned out by a melodramatic narrative. Instead the narrative was merely a device to move the film along. The true story was in the characters and the scenery. 

Something that I noticed about the film was that it was quite “cold.” What I mean by this is that there was a lack of resolution. For example when Pina is killed we don’t hear anything else about it. As viewers we barely even notice her death as the film pushes along leaving what has passed in the past. This continuation is representative the realities of war; that little time can be focused on the past when one’s future is at stake. The film doesn’t put rose colored sunglasses on the situation. The priest doesn’t miraculously get away with his actions, Pina does not miraculously survive the shooting, the bad guys don’t somehow get punished for their crimes. These factors are what make the film what it is. When a scene is finished it is finished, and there is no going back. It is a film about war, about the everyday people in Rome during the Nazi occupation, and that is what we get as viewers. 

Open City is a film that was written about what was happening at that moment. The images we see of Rome were the reality, not just a movie set. Many of the actors are non-professional actors and Rossellini relied heavily on improvisation as well. In fact while I was watching the film nothing seem scripted. I felt as if these were real people saying exactly what they wanted to say. Overall Rossellini’s use of on sight filming, mismatched film, non professional actors, lack of narrative, and use of improvisation, all things that would seemingly ruin a film when put together, made for a fantastic piece of honest and real work that really evokes Rome’s Nazi occupation.