Return to World Cinema Syllabus
Updated 30 August 2006
English 212, Section 3: World Cinema
Week 1: 28 August 2006
Professor: Don Larsson
Welcome and introduction to the class
What was new about Neorealism?
View Open City
Break
Discussion of Open City
Note: No class next week to the Labor Day holiday. We will have Quiz 1 (on Italian Neorealism and Open City) at the beginning of class on Sept. 11.
Quiz questions will come from reading, film and lecture. You should know
§ Approximate dates and backgrounds of Italian Neorealism as a movement
§ Major features of Neorealism as an identifiable type of cinema
§ Some major figures (directors)
§ Major elements of Open City and why it is important as a film
Italian Neorealism as a Film Movement
(See Wexler book and other sources for details)
§ Major figures in movement emerged from Italian studio system developed by Mussolini, but
§ Major feature of movement was to move away from artificiality of studio sets and formulaic plots to situations of ordinary people facing the conditions of real life
§ Preceded by neorealist movements in Italian literature but also draws from American crime fiction and films, as well as other sources
§ Stories tend to work out the implications of an episode that might seem trivial in more mainstream films but that have special significance in the individual lives of the characters
§ Characterized by use of location settings and (sometimes) non-professional actors in various roles, avoidance of major stars
§ Documentary-like in style: use of portable 16mm. cameras, natural lighting in outdoor scenes
§ Often emphasize main characters as typical or representative of a group facing similar problems or involved in similar actions. The films do not preach, but imply a need for social change or commitment to action by ordinary people
§ Tries to act as a social and political force in a time of political uncertainty after World War II
§ Lasts as a “movement” from about 1943 (De Sica’s The Children Are Watching Us and Visconti’s Ossessione) to 1952 (Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D) or maybe 1959 (Rossellini’s General Della Rovere)
§ Major filmmakers include Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti
§ All three directors eventually began to move in different directions, often using major stars, returning to studio settings, or even moving to television and documentaries
§ Criticism from the Catholic Church and decline ing support from the Italian government contributed to the movement’s decline
§ Some newer Italian directors continued to work with the Neorealist example:
o Ermanno Olmi
o Pier Palo Pasolini
o Francesco Rossi
o Vittorio and Paolo Taviani
§ Other Italian directors with roots in Neorealism tended to direct films that were less politically open but explored issues of human relationships, psychology, the imagination and the very reality of what and how people perceive:
o Federico Fellini
o Michelangelo Antonioni
o Bernardo Bertolucci
§ Most significant impact of Neorealism was on other national cinemas:
o Low budgets and non-professional actors demonstrated models for outsiders and filmmakers in developing countries
o Even had impact on American films in models of using location settings, dealing with more realistic and social themes
Open City (Roma, città aperta), Italy, 1945
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Screenplay: Sergio Amadei, Federico Fellini and Rossellini
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata
Editor: Eraldo Da Roma
Music: Renzo Rossellini
Cast:
Aldo Fabrizi (Don Pietro, the priest
Anna Magnani (Pina, pregnant by Francesco and a supporter of the anti-Fascist partisans)
Francesco Grandjacquet (Francesco, a member of the Resistance, and Pina’s fiance)
Marcello Pagliero (Luigi Ferrari, also known as Giorgio Manfredi, a Communist who had fought the Fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War and is now a leader of the Resistance)
Vito Annichiarico (Marcello, Pina’s son and a participant in anti-Facist activities)
Harry Feist (Major Bergmann, the German commander)
Maria Michi (Marinia, Manfredi’s girlfriend, an actress who is becoming a drug addict)
Giovanna Golletti (Ingrid, a collaborator with the Nazis and Maria’s supplier).
Historical background:
1922: Benito Mussolini, a former socialist, now leader of the Fascist Party in Italy leads a march of his followers on Rome. In the face of economic problems and widespread political unrest (much of it caused by Mussolini’s followers), he is invited to form a government as Prime Minister. By 1925, he will have assumed total control of the Italian government, creating the first Fascist dictatorship, based on anti-Communism, extreme nationalism, and a cult of personal power.
1932: Adolf Hitler, leader of Germany’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party, becomes head of the German government and begins his own assumption of dictatorial power, partly following Mussolini’s example, but also fueled by the notion of Germans as a “master race.”
1936-1939: Mussolini and Hitler support the forces of Spanish General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War against the elected left-wing government, which was supported by the Soviet Union. The war has been seen by many as a kind of “dress rehearsal” for World War II.
1939: Hitler invades Poland, launching World War II, with Italy as an ally, although it would not actively enter the war for another year.
December 1941: The United States enters the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the United States on the side of their Axis ally, Japan.
1943: The Axis powers are defeated in North Africa by British, American and Free French forces. The Allies invade Sicily and the Italian mainland. Mussolini is deposed from power and arrested. The new government negotiates a truce with the Allies, but Mussolini is rescued from prison by German troops who install him as head of a puppet Fascist government in northern Italy. German forces held strategic advantages that would slow down the Allied advance for the next two years. In the meantime, Italian partisans would wage a guerilla war against the German occupiers. (Mussolini himself would eventually be caught and executed by partisan forces.) The Germans declared Rome a demilitarized “open city,” but in reality continued to occupy the city, as depicted in Rossellini’s film.
Open City is the first of the three films in Rossellini’s “wartime trilogy”: Open
City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero.
Questions for Open City and Summary of Class Discussion
1. What questions or problems are posed for you by the film? What do you think needs some further explanation or filling in?
Some questions and problems posed by the film include
§ Lack of clear resolution about all the characters (Where does Francesco go after he avoids being arrested along with Don Pietro, Manfredi and the Austrian deserter? What will become of Marina?)
§ Lack of some transitions that fill in details of some events (How does Francesco get to Manfredi after he escapes when he is first arrested?)
§ Emphasis on some minor characters (See below).
§ No single character stands out the as “hero” or even main protagonist. The emphasis tends to shift from Manfredi’s escape at the very beginning to Pina to Francesco to Don Pietro.
2. What events and characters seem most important? Why does the film emphasize them?
§ Unlike a Hollywood film, Open City does not concentrate on one single character, even though it a few have the most importance. (A good point of comparison might be Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart, which also deals with a character who needs to choose sides in the war, but that is in the context of his romantic relationship with Ingrid Bergman’s character—a bit ironic, considering that Bergman would later wind up going to work with Rossellini and become his lover and wife. It was a huge scandal at the time.)
§ The main characters who support the Resistance and the Partisans do so for different reasons: Manfredi is the most politically committed character, having fought for the left-wing Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War; Francesco and Pina simply want better lives for themselves and their country; Don Pietro believes that advancing the cause of justice is doing God’s work. All are in alliance with each other despite their differences, especially Manfredi and Don Pietro at the end of the film.
§ The Nazis and Fascists are represented in their most extreme form by Major Bergmann and Ingrid. In a way that’s rather typical of some left-wing rhetoric at the time, both are portrayed as sexually deviant, suggesting that this is a by-product of their ideology. The major is prissy and somewhat effeminate in his body language; Ingrid seems to be trying to seduce Marina. (That too is an ironic take, given that homosexuals were considered criminals under Hitler’s regime and deported to the concentration camps when caught.) The major statement about the Major’s motives, however, comes when he is talking to the Nazi officer who had fought in World War I and is now just cynical and disgusted about the war. The Major is certain that he can break Manfredi and get him to talk—otherwise, he says, it would prove that a “slave race” was superior to the German “master race” and that the war had been for nothing.
§ Perhaps the most significant characters are the “in-betweeners,” those who are not fully committed to the Partisan cause but still work in some ways with the Fascists. On the more negative side of this divide is Marina, who is driven by her own difficult past and a view that life is hard and dirty. As a result, she falls prey to the allure of drugs and a desire for the nicer things in life that the Germans can give her, but that leads her to betray Manfredi, which she comes to regret bitterly. On a somewhat more positive side of the divide is the Italian police officer whom we see in several scenes. He doesn’t try to stop Pina and the others who are looting the bread shop and even accepts a couple of loaves; he offers excuses and tries to distract the Germans when Don Pietro and Marcello go into the apartment building to get the bomb away from Marcello’s friend, and he doesn’t fire his gun when he is in the firing squad for Don Pietro’s execution. Such a life involves some uneasy compromises, but the film does not seem to judge him harshly. In his film, The Rules of the Game, the French director Jean Renoir plays a character who remarks, “I’ve come to know one horrible thing in this life: Everyone has his reasons!” Rossellini seems to endorse that view with the qualification that some reasons are better than others.
3. Why does the film sometimes emphasize a character or action without fully explaining or resolving it?
§ There are two answers to this question:
1. Some of the characters or actions are present to make a particular point, as in the Italian policeman mentioned above. Others help to advance the plot. For example, the old man gives Don Pietro an excuse to enter the apartment building because he’s supposedly going to deliver the last rites. But this also becomes a comic way of breaking the tension, since the old man is very much alive and has to be subdued with a frying pan.
2. Other characters or actions simply occur as part of the realism of the surroundings. The baby sitting on the chamberpot, people coming and going from Don Pietro’s church, and so on are part of the tapestry of life in Rome, especially among the ordinary working people. And life is complicated and messy—not everything in our own lives is ever fully explained or resolved. The film tends to concentrate only on those individuals whose actions matter at this time of crisis. Even then, not everything is completely resolved. A Hollywood film, for example, would probably have included a scene showing Francesco fleeing to safety but it is enough that he promises to return to Marcello without spelling out how he will do so.
4. The film takes place in a historical context that calls for personal commitment by individuals. Everyone is more or less forced to “choose sides.” Do you see any examples of people who try to avoid choosing or who choose wrongly? Does the film pass judgment on them?
§ See Question 3, above. In addition, the real hope in the film is represented by the children. They stand by, whistling in support of Don Pietro as he is executed and then go off on their own, in contrast to the first shot in the film that showed Nazi troops fanning out through the city. Marcello and his friends represent the hope for Italy’s future, so the film ends with their example, to show that the priest’s sacrifice was worthwhile.
5. What message or meaning does the film want us to take away with us?
§ See above. The film stresses the heroism of different people who are dedicated to a common cause of advancing justice and human happiness even if they do so for very different reasons. (Manfredi, for example, would probably reject Don Pietro’s suggestion that the people “deserve” their suffering because of their sins, but that makes no important difference since both are willing to die for their beliefs.) If the film stereotypes Fascists and Nazis to a certain extent, it is probably to emphasize the rejection of an ideology that had ruled Italy for a decade and a half. The “new realism” of the acting, the story, the setting and the lighting all reinforce the importance of the political and social implications of the choices these characters make but without totally sacrificing such elements as humor, suspense, and even romance.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADDITONAL THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THE FILM? SEND THEM TO ME AT donald.larsson@mnsu.edu.