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Rome, Open City Movie Review

Rome, Open City is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and starring Anna Magnani. It is a really flawed, but still well crafted and moving picture.

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“It’s not hard to die well.

The hard thing is to live well“

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Resistance leader Luigi Ferrari is pursued by Major Fritz Bergmann, a German intelligence officer who wants the name of others in the underground movement. Ferrari enlists the help of sympathetic priest Don Pietro Pellegrini to pass on funds to the fighters in case he is captured, but is accidentally betrayed by a former lover. That is the plot behind this post-war movie that came out very soon after WWII, which must have made very impactful during release.

I am personally not the biggest fan of all these sprawling dramas with a high count of characters. They remind me too much of books and not enough of movies themselves. This is one such instance. The movie has so many different characters to tackle that as a result it becomes overly dense.

With that being said, the characterization is still very strong and the acting is particularly competent as each actor and actress elevated their roles significantly. Aldo Fabrizi is definitely quite memorable, but it is Anna Magnani who shines in a deeply sympathetic, powerful role. This powerhouse turn from this highly capable actress lead to her going to Hollywood and eventually winning an Oscar, and it is easy to see why Hollywood took notice as this performance was truly special.

Rome, Open City has, I would contend, a very standard, even straightforward plot. We have seen many of these plot points before and especially after as nothing here is particularly authentic or fresh. Still, the emotional engagement carries the storytelling forward as so many scenes are electric in their emotional intensity and that is the highlight of this entire picture.

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The technical aspects are also quite strong. The cinematography is pretty polished, the dialogue is very good, though overwhelming at times, and the directing from Roberto Rossellini is terrific. I just wish that the pacing was better and that the movie was more engaging as a whole.