150 Word Review: 'Rome, Open City' (1945)

"The hard thing is to live well."

Photo: Minerva Film

A courageous wife is gunned down in the streets. One of the leaders of the resistance is tortured with a blowtorch. A Nazi groupie rewards a drug-addled turncoat with a stolen fur coat. The scenes in Rome, Open City are fictional but inspired by the actual occupation of Rome by the Nazis. Director Roberto Rossellini shot this movie in 1945, about seven months after the Allies had liberated Rome, so memories of jackboots and curfews and executions were still fresh, like wounds.

The city plays itself, beautiful and ruined. The violence is ugly. The sacrifices are upsetting. The performances raw: Anna Magnani glows as a determined partisan, but the heart of the film lies in Aldo Fabrizi's gentle portrayal of Don Pietro, a heroic Catholic priest who helps the anti-fascists. Giovanna Galletti sneers as a sadistic Nazi. The fight against oppression is the doomed telling the doomed to have hope.

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