Drama · War
Italian (Roma città aperta)
1945 · Directed by Roberto Rossellini · 104 min
Rome, winter 1943 to 1944. The city is under German occupation, and a Resistance leader, a priest, a printer and a pregnant widow are all drawn into the same dangerous network. Rossellini films it on real streets, only months after the events it recreates.
Why it matters in cinema history
A founding work of Italian neorealism, it showed that a film could be shot on real streets, with scarce means, about events still raw in public memory.
Watch with intention
Watch how Rossellini mixes the look of newsreel and real streets with openly emotional melodrama, and ask which one carries the film.
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