Italian Cinema Final Exam.

-Rome, Open City by Roberto Rossellini outlines the early stages of neorealism by following an engineer, Giorgio Manfredi, the leader of the resistance group who is being tracked by the German SS troops. Through the plot, the film defies traditional film styles to display revolutionary attitudes, challenges to the establishments, and violence.

-In Rome, Open City, Rossellini demonstrates revolutionary attitudes by giving the protagonist a degree of power and control. This is first seen through the character of Don Pietro. As a key supporter of the resistance group against the German troops, Don Pietro uses his role as a priest to support Manfredi and the resistance fighters. This difference in power between the main character and common Italian citizens is outlined during the scene where the SS troops are evacuating a building to find hiding resistance fighters. In this scene, Don Pietro and Marcello tell German troops that they need to comfort a dying man, which allows them to make their way into the building. In the building, they look for Romoletto, one of the children resistance fighters, waiting to let off a bomb. As suspicious troops start to look for Don Pietro, he and Marcello quickly hide the bomb under the sick man’s bed. When the man protests, Don Pietro hits the man with a frying pan to silence him before the SS soldiers arrive on their floor. By giving the central character control over a situation, Rossellini is portraying the reality in a more fictional sense and is incorporating his views to support the resistance.

-In addition, the film portrays reality through desperation by presenting characters with materialistic obsessions. In Rome, Open City, Marina, Manfredi’s ex-lover is lured by Ingrid, who “seduces Marina with expensive fur coats, presents, and drugs” (Bondanella 67). As the plot progresses, Marina becomes infatuated with a fur coat – a fetish which she values more than her lover’s life, and a materialistic obsession that overpowers her human values. The desperation to survive leads Marina to betray Manfredi, and through the fetish of the fur coat, she essentially subjects him to human degradation. However, at the end of the movie when Marina faints, her actions towards Manfredi become ironic as the fur coat is stripped by Ingrid, degrading Marina’s life. Through Marina’s character, Rossellini depicts desperation and human degradation by the reality of the hardships of the lower class. -Rome, Open City, the focus of the nation in the post-war era is on finding a job, and therefore, it is clear why Antonio focuses on the objective of finding his stolen bicycle. However, this causes him to lose his moral values, sight of the true value of love, and love for his family.

-Despite the different approaches to neorealism, the film portrays a common theme, hope, represented by children. In Rome, Open City, which clearly portrays the struggles of common Italians living difficult day to day lives under the German occupation in Rome, Rossellini stresses the theme of hope for the future. This theme is first shown when Francesco talks to Pina in the flats and tells her, "We must believe it, we must want it.... We mustn't be afraid because we are on the just path.... We're fighting for something that must come. It may be long...it may be difficult, but there'll be a better world" (Rossellini). As this statement sets an underlining theme throughout the film, Rossellini most clearly displays his vision at the end of the film after Don Pietro is executed. As the children watch Don Pietro being seated for execution, they whistle his song in support. After being shot in the head by the commander, the movie ends with the camera following the group of children walking back into Rome, showing the whole city with St. Peter’s Basilica in the center of the frame. Combining the innocence of the children and their ties to Don Pietro and the resistance fighters, this last scene symbolizes a new generation of hope to save the corrupt city.

-Rossellini’s Rome, Open City displays the early beginnings of neorealism. With revolutionary attitudes portrayed through protagonists such as Don Pietro, who has more control and power. Don Pietro uses his role as a priest to support the resistance group. The aspect of control

comes through the character’s personality as Don Pietro takes the frying pan to hit the sick man’s head.

-Neorealist films utilized more of observational mode of documentary making even though this mode was classified in the 1960s. With these modes, these films established the real normal struggle of Italian people who comprised of different groups and most of whom who survived war Italy and across Europe. Italians who survived were observed as trying to recover from extraordinary difficulties that were created post Germany occupation. As an observational mode, children form part of the society as they struggle with their parents in every day to day difficult life