(Contains spoilers.)
The first film of Italy’s Neo-Realist movement was Luchino Visconti’s ‘Ossessione (1943).’ When this film was made, Rome had not yet been liberated from German occupation. Two years later, Roberto Rossellini made ‘Roma, Città Aperta’ or ‘Rome, Open City.’ Just two months before its making, Rome was freed from the Gestapo forces, and the signs of devastation were still clearly visible everywhere. ‘Roma, Città Aperta (1945)’ tells the story of some people living around the city when the Nazi forces were occupying Rome. Among the most successful Neo-Realist films that Satyajit Ray mentioned in his book ‘Bishoy: Cholochitra,’ one was ‘Rome, Open City.’ A dialogue from Father Pietro, an important character in this film, is etched in memory: It is not difficult to die well; it is difficult to live well.
1944. Engineer Manfredi is being hunted by the German Gestapo. He leads a resistance force fighting against German Nazis and Italian Fascists. His landlady warns him just in time, so he manages to escape by jumping from one rooftop to another. He then goes to the home of Francesco, another member of his group. There he meets Pina, who is Francesco’s fiancée. Pina initially suspects him of being police, but later realizes her mistake and tells him to wait for Francesco. Pina is also a member of the rebel group. With Pina’s help, Manfredi meets Catholic priest Don Pietro Pellegrini. Manfredi asks Pietro to deliver some messages and money to resistance members in another city. This task is impossible for Manfredi since the Gestapo knows him. Meanwhile, Pina and Francesco’s wedding is the next day, and Pietro will officiate. Francesco is not particularly religious, but he prefers that a patriotic priest perform their wedding rather than any Fascist. Pina is quite religious, but she cannot understand why God keeps people in such suffering. Pina’s son Marcello, along with some friends, helps the resistance with bomb-planting operations. Pina’s sister Laura lives with her. She is not connected to the resistance. She works at an inn where Nazi and Fascist forces gather. Manfredi’s former lover Marina is Laura’s old friend. She works as a prostitute for the inn’s customers. Let us hear a conversation between Marina and Manfredi.
: Yes, I had many lovers. Of course I did. What else could I do? All this furniture, my clothes, everything—how do you think I bought them? What do you think? With my salary? Why, that barely covers my stockings and cigarettes! I bought these things the same way ten other girls buy them. That’s life!
: Life is what we make it.
: Stop your heroic talk! Life is dirty and brutal!
Let us hear another exchange.
: I know what poverty is! I’m afraid of poverty. I could have just married some poor driver. Then what would have happened? He and I and our children would have slowly starved to death.
: Poor Marina! You think happiness means a decorated apartment, beautiful clothes, servants, and a crowd of rich lovers, don’t you?
: If you really loved me, you would have changed me. But you’re just like all the others. No, that’s wrong. You’re worse. At least they don’t make grand speeches like you do.
: You’re right. Forgive me.
Based on information from the Italian police commissioner, the local Gestapo commander suspects that Manfredi is hiding in Francesco’s apartment. They conduct a massive search operation in the building. They bring everyone out and arrest many people. Although Manfredi manages to escape, Francesco is caught. One scene from that moment is, in my view, the film’s greatest shot. Francesco is being dragged with others into a truck. Seeing this, his fiancée Pina, after arguing with the police, breaks through their barrier and runs toward the truck, screaming. Pina is shot from behind. Even in her dying moments, Pina continued screaming, hoping to reach her beloved: Francesco! Francesco! Her lifeless body collapsed to the ground. Her son runs over and throws himself on his mother’s corpse; police come and drag the boy away. Father Pietro, who was supposed to officiate at her wedding, sits holding her dead body. Instead of reading wedding vows for Pina, Pietro had to pray for her soul’s peace. That truck was leaving under military escort, but on the way, some resistance fighters attack them, and Francesco manages to escape with many other prisoners. He returns to Rome and meets Manfredi. The priest advises them to hide in a monastery. Now, why did Pina take such risks and rush toward Francesco, breaking through all barriers? What caused such deep love for Francesco in her heart? Let us hear it in her own words:
“I’ve lived a very bad life. I’ve done many things I shouldn’t have done. You think that in my condition, I’m not ashamed at all about getting married? You’ll never understand my situation. There are many things we do without thinking. When we do them, we don’t even realize we’re doing something wrong. I fell in love with him—he’s a wonderful person. I know he could have found someone much better than me, someone younger too. A poor, destitute widow like me, who has a son and has had to sell everything just to survive—why would he agree to marry someone like that?”
Meanwhile, Marina betrays her former lover for a fur coat and some drugs. Based on Marina’s information, the Gestapo and Italian police capture Manfredi and Pietro on their way to the monastery. With them was a turncoat Austrian youth. Francesco bids farewell to the dead Pina’s son and quickly flees upon seeing them. In that scene, we see Marcello calling Francesco from behind and giving him his dead mother’s scarf so he won’t catch cold. In another scene, he asks Francesco, “Can I call you father?” We see that the human longing for love doesn’t die even in such extreme adversity. Marcello is one of this film’s helpless, sorrowful characters. Despite all his efforts, he couldn’t save his mother from the Gestapo, had to witness her murder before his eyes, and later had to silently watch Pietro’s cruel fate. In the Nazi prison, the Austrian youth commits suicide out of fear of torture. Manfredi is subjected to horrific torture, yet he doesn’t speak. Pietro is shown Manfredi’s pitiful condition and told that he is an atheist, therefore his enemy; but Pietro responds that whoever walks the right path, whether they believe in God or not, is truly walking God’s path. Manfredi dies there, and Pietro prays for his soul’s peace. When the Gestapo cannot extract any information from Pietro either, the Gestapo commander becomes furious, thinking it’s natural that a slave cannot endure his master’s torture—but why is this happening here?
In a drunken state, Marina faints upon seeing Manfredi’s fate. She had thought they would capture Manfredi and treat him well, cleverly extracting information, but she hadn’t imagined they would torture and kill him like this. The Gestapo chief orders Marina’s arrest and takes back the fur coat. Even after witnessing all this, Pietro remained firm in his earlier position. The next morning, he was taken to an open field to be executed. The field was surrounded by wire fencing. Pietro was tied to a chair, facing backward. Some boys saw this scene from the other side of the fence and whistled. They used to help Pietro with small tasks at the church, so that whistle was familiar to Pietro. They all watched, knowing their beloved Father would be killed shortly. The Italian firing squad was ordered to shoot. They deliberately fired at wrong targets. Then the German Gestapo officer realized that the Italians could not kill one of their own priests. He himself shot Pietro in the head, completing the execution. Until death, Pietro continued praying to God: Lord, forgive them… The little boys from the church and the resistance fighters witnessed that death, then bowed their heads in deep sorrow and slowly walked away. It was like leaving death behind and moving forward together toward life.
1946. Post-war Italy. The intellectual movement to capture the true condition of the country and its people immediately after the war ‘as it is’ through the lens was called the Neo-Realist movement. Now let’s see what ‘Open City’ means. Very simple. A city that is free, a city without the fear of war. According to the 1907 Hague Convention, such open cities cannot be attacked, bombed, or made theaters of war. Rome in 1944 was such a city, but the occupying Nazi forces, with the cooperation of the newly formed Italian Fascist government, would no longer let Rome remain peaceful. In Rossellini’s words, “This film is a film of fear.” Whose fear? “Everyone’s fear, especially my own fear.” The film was shot immediately after the war, so Rossellini didn’t have to struggle to build sets—shooting locations, war-terrified people, broken buildings, everything seemed ready-made for him, and he simply placed cameras throughout the entire city of his story and made his movie! The Nazis had destroyed the city’s last studio, Rome had just been liberated from Nazi hands, and even during filming, they were still on the streets. In such circumstances, Rossellini made ‘Rome, Open City.’ Imagine that! This is what Neo-Realist cinema means. Not real life, but capturing life on lens exactly as it happens in reality. Yet Rossellini arranged his story in his own way… love, faith, determination, greed, betrayal, cruelty, rebellion, separation… his story revolves around these human instincts.