Roma città aperta
Rom, offene Stadt
On June 4, 1944, the Wehrmacht withdrew from Rome. Just two months later, Rossellini began to work on ROMA, CITTÀ APERTA, a film that started off as a failure, only to soon become a portentous synonym for Italian neorealism. This cinematic reaction to moments of dark history, barely one step in the past, was filmed in real streets and apartments and populated with a largely non-professional cast, people who were only yesterday still participating in or witnessing the events now being depicted. Desolation reigned on the set, as destroyed studios came together with abysmal film stock, a lack of money, primitive technology, and chaotic working conditions. Two professional actors found themselves surrounded by a lay collective made up of children, women, and apartment-block residents. All of this fanned a fierce wind of reality, which blows straight through ROMA, CITTÀ APERTA. A sense of vehement sympathy suffuses the subject matter: the first cinematic testimony to the resistenza and a homage to the partisan movement. In tribute to an “underground army” where Marxists and priests fought side by side, Rossellini forged a great drama of solidarity and unity beyond all borders and confines of society. Against fascism, forever and for all.
- Anna Magnani - Camilla
- Aldo Fabrizi
- Marcello Pagliero
- Maria Michi
- Carla Rovere
- Roberto Rossellini
- Sergio Amidei
- Federico Fellini
- Ferruccio Disnan
- Celeste Negarville
- Ubaldo Arata
- Eraldo Da Roma
- Renzo Rossellini