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.