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Home , Anima nera, Anno uno, A Pilot Returns, Joan of Arc at the Stake, Journey to Italy, La Vispa Teresa

(, 8 May 1906 – Rome, 3 June 1977) by Elena Dagrada University of

him to interrupt regular studies, continu- ing his education in his family’s cultural sa- lon where his father, a cultivated man with creative ambitions and a liberal spirit, used to gather intellectuals, artists, musicians and writers. There the young Rossellini developed an unquenchable curiosity for both humanities and science, one that ac- companied him until the end of his life. At the same time, he showed an adventurous nature—he ran away from home many times—and a passion for aviation and rac- ing cars. Indeed, throughout his life he took part in many car races, including the Roberto Rossellini was born in Rome on 8 Mille Miglia. May 1906. His paternal family was origi- After his father’s untimely death, he dissi- nally from , , and owned a pated his heritage and moved to the bath- construction company, which, in the sec- ing site of Ladispoli, where he met his first ond half of the nineteenth century, con- wife, Marcella De Marchis (married in tributed to the urban development in the 1936, mother of his first two sons, Ro- capital city of the newly born Kingdom of mano and Renzo), and shot his first exper- . His father, Angiolo Giuseppe, also imental shorts: they were mostly natural- built a couple of movie theatres, and there istic fables (i.e. [Lively Te- the young Rossellini would benefit from resa], 1940, illustrating a nursery rhyme) an unlimited pass and watch films for free. and documentaries about nature: these As a scion of an upper-class family, he en- early works were characterized by inven- joyed a golden youth, surrounded by lux- tiveness, craftsmanship and technical ury and elite socialite amusements, but skills. Some were also distributed with suc- also by a stimulating intellectual milieu. cess, notably Fantasia sottomarina (Un- After high school, his restless nature lead 460 dersea Fantasy, 1940) and Il ruscello di Ri- La nave bianca is considered the first pic- pasottile (The Brook of Ripa Sottile, ture of the so-called Rossellini’s “Fascist 1941), the latter produced by INCOM. War Trilogy”, that was to include Un pilota During the thirties, looking for a stable em- ritorna (, 1942) and ployment in the world of the moving pic- L’uomo dalla croce (The Man with the tures, Rossellini also experienced different Cross, 1943). Shot on a real hospital ship, jobs related to filmmaking, and gained a the Arno, it was interpreted by non-profes- competence in sound making, stage craft- sional officers of the crew and was surely ing, editing and screenwriting. The turn- influenced by De Robertis’ realism. The ing point, though, arrived thanks to two following Un pilota ritorna was based on a special encounters. The first was that with story by , who also ’s son, Vittorio, who was wrote the screenplay under the pseudo- an expert aviator, a cinema fan and the nym Tito Silvio Mursino (an anagram for founder the film magazine Cinema, inner his name) and wanted Rossellini as a direc- sanctum of the openly left-of-centre crit- tor, mostly because of their common pas- ics. In 1937, Vittorio Mussolini supervised sion for aviation. L’uomo dalla croce, re- Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra, Pilot, leased in 1943, was shot in 1942 and thus 1938): the movie was directed by Gof- almost simultaneously with the war events fredo Alessandrini, and Rossellini collabo- narrated in the film; the story revolves rated on the screenplay and probably around an Army chaplain during the Rus- played a role as a second unit director. The sian campaign, even though the movie was second encounter was with Francesco De partly shot in Ladispoli; once again, Ros- Robertis, a Navy officer at the head of the sellini directed a non-professional actor, Cinematographic Center of the Ministry the architect Alberto Tavazzi, in a leading of the Navy, as well as a film director ap- role. preciated for his very personal realism, that Many film critics hold Rossellini’s “Fascist combined documentarism and the drama War Trilogy” as a precursor of arising from real facts and characters. Be- because, though in various parts it exudes tween 1940 and 1942, De Robertis de- propaganda, it blends fiction and reality, vised some documentaries about the War and reveals documentary intentions. Un- fought by the navy; such films were pro- questionably, the war had a powerful im- moted by the Cinematographic Center of pact on Rossellini, who rapidly acquired a the Ministry of the Navy. After directing new awareness, and was forced to change Uomini sul fondo (S.O.S. Submarine, life again, looking for new encounters. 1941), De Robertis entrusted Rossellini One of the most important meetings in his with the direction of his first feature film, life was the encounter with fear during a La nave bianca (The White Ship, 1941), fairly difficult time, between 1943 and for which De Robertis wrote the story and 1944, when the war was taking a tragic attended to the supervision. turn. Rossellini himself gave fear a decisive 461 role in the birth of his most famous picture, Trilogy” directing Paisà (, 1946), Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City, written again by Amidei and Fellini, 1945), even if its adventurous genesis is among others, and Germania anno zero also linked to many other encounters and (Germany Year Zero, 1948). These three collaborations, such as those with screen- movies are unanimously considered a cen- writer , as well as Alberto tral reference for film realism and aesthetic Consiglio, and . Con- radicalism, influencing film movements ceived in 1944 and shot between January such as the and Dogme and June 1945, almost simultaneously 95. Once more, Paisà was shot almost sim- with the narrated events of popular Re- ultaneously with the Resistance events; it sistance in Nazi-occupied Rome, Roma is composed of six episodes narrating the città aperta has become a landmark in both Allied advance from Sicily to the delta of world cinema and Italian history. Its wide the Po River, showing the choral drama of success is surely tied to the high efficacy of the struggle for Liberation. Germania anno its melodramatic construction, partly due zero, rewarded at the Locarno Film Festi- to the unforgettable character played by val in 1948, is the first and long-lasting , Sora Pina, inspired by Te- unique picture whose protagonist is the resa Gullace (a woman killed by the Nazis defeated Germany; the nation’s value cri- while running after a truck that was taking sis is represented through the eyes of a away her husband), as well as to the priest young boy who is surrounded by the dread interpreted by , based on two and the debris provoked by and real clergymen, Don Luigi Morosini and war, moves aimlessly in a thoroughly de- Don , both killed by the stroyed Berlin, and in the end commits su- Nazis in 1944. Its international influence icide. It is also worth noticing that the is, however, tied to its capacity to embody three pictures entrust children with an es- a new film aesthetic, later called Neoreal- sential role, as it was to happen later with ism, whose impact would be global. Europa ’51 (Europe ’51, 1952): during the It is worth mentioning that at the end of summer of 1946, Rossellini’s first-born 1943 Rossellini started shooting a picture Romano had died of appendicitis, and he titled Scalo merci (Rail Yard) or Rinuncia never recovered from this loss. (Surrender), set in San Lorenzo, a popular The global impact of Roma città aperta and neighbourhood in Rome, and released Paisà (both rewarded abroad on several only in 1946 with the new title Desiderio occasions) ratified Rossellini’s success in a (Desire), after various problems with cen- way that was never to be repeated and that, sorship. It was completed by Marcello Pa- somehow, negatively affected his subse- gliero, who plays the communist partisan quent career. Neorealism’s international in Roma città aperta. fame was mostly efficacious in promoting After his 1945 masterpiece, Rossellini a positive opinion about the defeated Ital- completed his so-called “Resistance War ian nation, acquitting from the 462 blame of and showing the daily event augmented expectations upon Ros- heroism of a suffering population. As the sellini’s work, which intensified even fur- director of Roma città aperta, Rossellini ther when the couple started a love affair was held as the father of Neorealism; thus, that became a world scandal since they he found himself in the difficult position of were both married, and did not placate having to negotiate with the expectations even after their marriage, the birth of three of both film critics and politicians, as well children (Robertino, the twins Isabella as with the political censorship of the and Isotta Ingrid) and the release of six Catholic powers ruling the country from motion pictures, all of them realized with the end of the and throughout the multiple versions (see Dagrada 2008). ‘50s, a period powerfully affected by the The first of these films, Stromboli / Strom- Cold War’s ideological conflicts (see Dag- boli, terra di Dio (Of God’s Earth, 1950- rada 2015). 1951), was presented out of competition The year 1948 marked another watershed at the Venice Film Festival in 1950, while in Rossellini’s life and work, and brought Francesco, giullare di Dio (The Flowers of new encounters. He directed L’amore St. Francis, 1950), realized for the Holy (Ways of Love, 1948), interpreted by Anna year, was presented in the contest (even Magnani, the famous actress with whom, though it was not given any recognition in the meantime, he was experiencing an from the jury). Both movies were pro- intense love story. Composed of two epi- duced by Rossellini in collaboration with, sodes, Una voce umana (A Human Voice), among others, the Dominican friar Félix shot in Paris during the summer 1947, and Morlion, who inspired Stromboli’s “reli- adapted from a monologue by Jean Coc- gious theme” and participated in the “elab- teau, and Il miracolo (The Miracle), from a oration” of Francesco (with father Antonio story written by Fellini and based on Flor Lisandrini and Fellini, according to the de santitad, a prose poem by Ramón María credits). The two films were to make Ros- del Valle Inclán, the diptych provoked a sellini the “pioneer of Catholic neoreal- very negative critical reaction, especially ism” (see Dagrada 2015), in order to break amongst Catholic critics, and, like Germa- the Left’s monopoly over Neorealism it- nia anno zero, had problems with the cen- self. Yet, both Francesco—a courageous sorship. The same year he also started and original eulogy of Franciscan foolish- shooting La macchina ammazzacattivi ness—and Stromboli were supported only (Machine to Kill Bad People), from a story by a small number of catholic film critics, by Eduardo De Filippo; he completed the and most critics accused them of betraying film only in 1951 and finally released it in Neorealism, and embracing spiritualism 1952. (or not embracing it enough); moreover, Most importantly, in 1948 he received a Rossellini was accused of deserting collec- letter from Hollywood star Ingrid Berg- man, who offered to work for him. This 463 tive storytelling and social themes in fa- new title, Non credo più all’amore (I Don’t vour of an introspective turn considered to Believe in Love Any More), shortened and be an “involution”. deeply altered, in order to retrace the end The same destiny befell all Rossellini’s of marriage between Rossellini and Ingrid “Bergman films”: Stromboli, the tale of a Bergman tall and blond stranger in conflict with the These “Bergman films” are all affected by a hostile environment of a black volcanic is- deep sense of diversity and exclusion, land; Europa ’51, the most political of Ros- partly due to ’s diversity— sellini’s pictures in which another woman, a Northern professional among amateurs lost after her child’s death, tries to find a thrown into the alien Southern landscape way out of her sorrow by first following the of . Diversity and exclu- advice of her Communist cousin, and then sion were also due to Rossellini’s growing practicing Christian charity without ad- feeling of difference and marginaliza- hering to a religious order, but, since she tion—from film critics, from the Italian refuses to conform to an institutional be- filmmaking system, from political con- haviour, she is put into an asylum. Ingrid sent—as he was confronting the difficul- Bergman (episode of Siamo donne, 1953) ties of a new life and new expectations, if and Viaggio in Italia (, not as a foreigner still as perhaps even 1954) received the same criticism, even more as an outsider. though the latter was literally endorsed by Being a true experimenter, Rossellini con- the French politique des auteurs as a mani- fronted all these differences head-on, ac- fest of cinema modernity, while the rest of centuating and radicalizing them, proving world film critics (including most French his continuous research and anticipating ones) declared it to be a complete failure the cinema to come, through downtime (see Dagrada 2010). Giovanna d'Arco al and rhapsodic narrations. Yet, his rogo (, 1954), from films obtained the worst critical receptions Arthur Honegger and Paul Claudel’s ora- and soon enough the audience abandoned torio, was practically ignored. The final him as well: the two episodes Invidia (En- Angst/La paura (Fear, 1954–55), based vie, 1952) and Napoli ‘43 (1954) as well as on a novel by Stefan Zweig (adapted for the feature film Dov'è la libertà (Where Is the screen by an old collaborator, Amidei, Freedom?, 1954), starring Totò and com- among others, and modified by Rossellini pleted by Fellini about one year after its specifically to set the plot in contemporary starting, were economic fiascos. prosperous Munich, allowing him to re- Indeed, this was the most difficult period turn to Germany ten years after Germania in the Italian director’s life, and culminated anno zero), denounced the lack of postwar in his separation from Ingrid Bergman and moral reconstruction, compared to the in the decision to search for new horizons opulent material growth. In Italy the outside of cinema and of Italy. During the movie was released again in 1958 with a second half of the fifties he undertook a 464 journey to , where he met his third little conviction and even less participa- wife, Sonali Sen Roy Das Gupta (who gave tion. Subsequently, Roberto Rossellini re- him a daughter, Raffaella, and whose son, alized his own prophetic farewells to cin- Gil, was adopted by Rossellini), and where ema with Illibatezza (Chastity), an episode he shot thousands of meters of film, blend- of RO.GO.PA.G. (Id., reissue title: Laviam- ing, once again, documentarism and the oci il cervello [Let’s have a Brainwash], drama arising from characters and facts, 1963), which is also a sharp reflection and in which there emerges a fascination about the illusory nature of cinema’s real- for the discovery of a new world and its istic appearance; this too was, at the time, culture. From all this shooting, Rossellini mostly disliked by film critics, but it has created ten episodes for Italian and French been reconsidered and is now held by television, L’India vista da Rossellini/J’ai many to be one of his best works. fait un beau voyage (1959), a program that Significantly, the last important encounter was Rossellini’s first television experience. in Rossellini’s career was the one with tele- Afterwards he also directed the feature vision, first experienced with the Indian se- film India (1960), structured in episodes ries and with Torino nei cent’anni (Turin in and which many critics compared to Paisà. its Hundred Years, 1961). Between the Back to Europe, in order to continue end of the sixties and the early seventies, he working in motion pictures, Rossellini also devoted himself to didactic documen- had to accept to go back to neorealistic is- taries broadcast in Italy, France and, at sues with Il generale Della Rovere (General times, even in Great Britain: they were all Della Rovere, 1959), masterfully played by about crucial periods or prominent people his friend . The picture in human history, and go from L’Età del won the Leone d'oro ex aequo with La Ferro (The Iron Age, 1964) to Gli atti degli grande guerra (The Great War, Mario Apostoli (Acts of the Apostles, 1968) and Monicelli, 1959) at the Venice Film Festi- Socrate (1970), (Id., 1971), val, and was followed by Era notte a Roma Agostino d’Ippona (1972), L’età di Cosimo (Blackout in Rome, 1960), a film set, once de’ Medici (The Age of the Medici, 1972- again, during the Resistance. The early six- 73), Cartesius (Id., 1974), but also La lotta ties continued with Viva l’Italia! (Gari- dell’uomo per la sua sopravvivenza (Man’s baldi, 1961) and Vanina Vanini (1961): Struggle for Survival, 1967), composed the latter is an adaptation from the ho- with various episodes, written by Roberto monymous novel by Stendhal, but both Rossellini and directed by his son Renzo. movies are historical reconstructions and Worth mentioning is the success obtained were monumental fiascos. by La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV / La (Black Soul, 1962), another flop, was presa del potere di Luigi XIV (The Rise to based on a pièce by Giuseppe Patroni- Power of Louis XIV, 1966), whose screen- Griffi, shot—like the previous two—with 465 play was written by Jean Gruault and real- He died in Rome at the age of 71, on 3 June ized for French television, but released in 1977. Just a couple of weeks earlier he had cinema theaters as well. served as President on the jury of the In the seventies, Rossellini went back to , where he strongly cinema only twice, with two unsuccessful supported the winner Padre padrone feature films, . Alcide De Gasperi (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 1977), a pic- (Year One, 1974), and Il Messia (The ture that certainly moves very close to his Messiah, 1976). Unquestionably, though, own idea of Neorealism. television remained his last “utopia” (see Rossellini 2001), the field where he could FILMOGRAPHY still experiment and combine his intellec- Dafne (Id., 1935) - Short tual curiosity for both humanities and sci- Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (After- ence. noon of a Faun, 1937) In his later years, he also experienced with Fantasia sottomarina (Undersea Fantasy, “non fiction”: for instance, he interviewed 1940) – Short Salvador Allende just before his death as Il tacchino prepotente (The Bullying Tur- well as various scientists at Rice Univer- key, 1940) – Short sity; he also directed all sorts of documen- La vispa Teresa (Lively Teresa, 1940) – taries, with such works as Concerto per Mi- Short chelangelo (Concert for Michelangelo, Il ruscello di Ripasottile (The Brook of Ri- 1977) or Le Centre Georges Pompidou pasottile, 1941) – Short (The Georges Pompidou Centre, 1977), a La nave bianca (The White Ship, 1941) doc about the Parisian space gallery. From Un pilota ritorna (A Pilot Returns, 1942) 1969 to 1974 he was also Head of the Cen- L’uomo dalla croce (The Man with the tro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Cross, 1943) Moreover, he devoted himself to writing, Desiderio (Woman, 1946) and published the volume Utopia Autopsia Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City, AKA 1010, a sort of summary of his reflections in Open City, 1945) which his trust in human beings and cul- Paisà (Paisan, 1946) ture clearly emerges and can be connected Germania anno zero / Deutschland im Jahre to the stubbornness with which he always Null (Germany Year Zero, 1948) claimed to interpret Neorealism in his L’amore. (The Ways of Love , 1948) – Two own way. Actually, he always demanded to episodes: Una voce umana. (A Human be associated with Neorealism only in his Voice), Il miracolo (The Miracle) own personal conception of it, that is, a Stromboli / Stromboli, terra di Dio moral position, a concern for human be- (Id.,AKA Of God’s Earth 1950) ings, and thus constantly reclaiming his Francesco giullare di Dio (Flowers of St own diversity, and thus that of his entire Francis, 1950) work. 466

La macchina ammazzacattivi (The Ma- L’età del ferro (The Iron Age, 1965) – TV chine to Kill Bad People, 1952) Series L’Invidia / L’envie (Envy) – Episode of I La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Rise sette peccati capitali / Les sept péchés to Power of Louis XIV, 1966) – TV capitaux (The Seven Deadly Sins, 1952) Movie Europa ’51 (The Greatest Love, 1952) Idea di un’isola (The Sicily of Roberto Ros- Ingrid Bergman (The Chicken, 1953) – Ep- sellini) – TV Documentary isode of Siamo donne (We, the Atti degli apostoli / Les Actes des Apôtres Women, 1953) (Acts of the Apostles, 1969) – TV Se- Dov’è la libertà (Where Is Freedom?, ries 1954) Socrate (Socrates, 1971) – TV Movie Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy/Strangers, Blaise Pascal (Id., 1972) – TV Movie 1954) Agostino d’Ippona (Augustine of Hippo, Napoli ’43– Episode of Amori di mezzo 1972) – TV Movie secolo (Mid-century Loves, 1954) L’età di Cosimo de’ Medici (The Age of the Giovanna d’Arco al rogo / Jeanne au bûcher Medici, 1972-3) – TV Movie (Joan of Arc at the Stake, 1954) Cartesius (Id., 1974) – TV Movie Angst / La paura / Non credo più all’amore A Question of People (Id., 1974) – TV Doc- (Fear, 1954) umentary L’India vista da Rossellini (India As Seen by Anno uno (Year One, 1974) Rossellini, 1959_ – TV series (10 epi- Il messia (The Messiah, 1976) sodes) Concerto per Michelangelo (Concert for Il generale Della Rovere (General Della Rov- Michelangelo, 1977) – TV Documen- ere, 1959) tary India Matri Buhmi (India Mother Land / Le Centre Georges Pompidou (The Georges India, 1960) Pompidou Centre, 1977) – TV Docu- Era notte a Roma (Blackout in Rome, 1960) mentary Viva l’Italia (Garibaldi, 1961) Torino nei cent’anni (Turin In Its Hundred SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Years, 1961) – TV Documentary Aprà, Adriano, In viaggio con Rossellini, Torino tra due secoli (Turin Across Two Falsopiano, Alessandria 2006. Centuries, 1961) – TV Documentary Aprà, Adriano (ed.), Dibattito su Rossellini, Vanina Vanini (The Betrayer, 1961) Diabasis, Parma 2009. Anima nera (Black Soul, 1962) Bergala, Alain – Narboni, Jean (eds), Rob- Illibatezza (Chastity, 1963) – Episode of erto Rossellini, Editions de l’Étoile/Ca- Ro.Go.Pa.G. / Laviamoci il cervello (re- hiers du cinema,Paris 1990. issue title) (Let’s have a Brainwash, Bondanella, Peter, The films of Roberto 1963) Rossellini, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1993. 467

Brunette, Peter, Roberto Rossellini, Univer- Rossellini, Roberto,, Quasi un’autobio- sity of California Press (new ed.), Oak- grafia, Ed. Stefano Roncoroni, Mon- land CA 1996. dadori, Milano 1987. Caminati, Luca, Roberto Rossellini docu- Rossellini, Roberto,, Il mio metodo, Ed. mentarista. Una cultura della realtà, Ca- Adriano Aprà, Marsilio, Venezia 1987. rocci, Roma 2012. Rossellini, Roberto,, Il mio cinema, [1979], Dagrada, Elena, Le varianti trasparenti. I Ed. E. Bruno, Bulzoni, Roma 2001. film con Ingrid Bergman di Roberto Ros- Rossellini, Roberto,, La télévision comme sellini, LED, Milano 2005 (2nd en- utopie, Ed. Adriano Aprà, Cahiers du larged edition, 2008). cinéma-Louvre, Paris 2001. Dagrada, Elena, “Quanto la critica si divise. Serceau, Michel, Roberto Rossellini, Edi- A proposito degli ‘anni Bergman’”, tions du Cerf, Paris 1986. L’antirossellinismo, Ed. Andrea Martini (ed.), Kaplan, Torino 2010: 80-119. Dagrada, Elena, “A Triple Alliance for a Catholic Neorealism. Roberto Rossel- lini according to Félix Morlion, Giulio Andreotti and Gian Luigi Rondi”, Moralizing Cinema. Film, Catholicism and Power, Eds. Daniel Biltereyst – Daniela Treveri Gennari, Routledge, New York 2015: 114-134. Forgacs, David – Lutton, Sarah – Nowell- Smith, Geoffrey (eds.), Roberto Rossel- lini. Magician of the Real, BFI, London 2000. Gallagher, Tag, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini. His Life and Films, Da Capo Press, Cambridge 1998. Giammusso, Maurizio, Vita di Rossellini, ElleU Multimedia, Roma 2004. Martini, Andrea (ed.), L’antirossellinismo, Kaplan, Torino 2010. Rondolino, Gianni, Roberto Rossellini, UTET, Torino 1989. Rossellini, Roberto, Utopia Autopsia 1010, Armando, Roma 1974.