Rome, Open City
| Rome, Open City | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Roberto Rossellini |
| Produced by |
Giuseppe Amato Ferruccio De Martino Roberto Rossellini Rod E. Geiger |
| Written by |
Sergio Amidei Federico Fellini |
| Story by | Sergio Amidei Alberto Consiglio |
| Starring |
Aldo Fabrizi Anna Magnani Marcello Pagliero |
| Music by | Renzo Rossellini |
| Cinematography | Ubaldo Arata |
| Edited by | Eraldo Da Roma |
| Distributed by | Minerva Film SPA (Italy) Joseph Burstyn & Arthur Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language |
Italian German |
| Box office | $1 million |
Open City or Rome, Open City (Italian: Roma città aperta) is a 1945 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. The picture features Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, and is set in Rome during the Nazi occupation in 1944. The title refers to Rome being declared an open city after 14 August 1943. The film won several awards at various film festivals, including the most prestigious Cannes' Grand Prize, and was also nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar at the 19th Academy Awards.
In occupied Rome in 1944, German SS troops are trying to arrest the engineer Giorgio Manfredi, a communist and a leader of the Resistance against the Nazis and Fascists, who is staying in a rooming house. The landlady warns him in time of the Germans' arrival, so that he can elude them by jumping across the rooftops. He goes to the home of another Resistance fighter, Francesco. There he encounters Pina who lives in the next apartment. Pina is Francesco’s fiancée, and is visibly pregnant. She first suspects Giorgio of being a cop and gives him a rough time, but when he makes it clear he is not, she welcomes him into Francesco’s apartment to wait for him. With Pina’s help (she is also part of the Resistance), Giorgio contacts Don Pietro Pellegrini, a Catholic priest who is also helping the Resistance, and asks him to transfer messages and money to a group of Resistance fighters outside the city: because Giorgio is now known to the Gestapo, he cannot do it himself.
Don Pietro is scheduled to officiate at Pina's and Francesco’s wedding the next day. Francesco is not very religious, but would rather be married by a patriot priest than a fascist official; Pina, on the other hand, is devout, but wrestling with why God would allow such terrible things to happen to people. Her son, Marcello, is a sort of reluctant altar boy. He and his friends have a small role in the Resistance planting bombs. Pina's sister Laura stays with her, but is not involved in the Resistance: in fact, she works in a cabaret serving the Nazis and Fascists. She is also an old friend of Marina, a girlfriend of Giorgio's who has been looking for him, but with whom he is now splitting up. Marina also works in the cabaret, and as an occasional prostitute.
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