Roberto Rossellini (Rome, 8 May 1906 – Rome, 3 June 1977) by Elena Dagrada University of Milan
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Roberto Rossellini (Rome, 8 May 1906 – Rome, 3 June 1977) by Elena Dagrada University of Milan 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 Pisa, Tuscany, 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- Italy. His father, Angiolo Giuseppe, also imental shorts: they were mostly natural- built a couple of movie theatres, and there istic fables (i.e. La vispa Teresa [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 (A Pilot Returns, 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 Vittorio Mussolini, who also Benito Mussolini’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 Neorealism 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 (Paisan, 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 Sergio Amidei, as well as Alberto tral reference for film realism and aesthetic Consiglio, and Federico Fellini. Con- radicalism, influencing film movements ceived in 1944 and shot between January such as the French New Wave 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 Anna Magnani, 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 Aldo Fabrizi, based on two and the debris provoked by Nazism and real clergymen, Don Luigi Morosini and war, moves aimlessly in a thoroughly de- Don Pietro Pappagallo, 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 Italians from the 462 blame of Fascism 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 1940s 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.