In Weeks 3-4 of my Italian Cinema class on Desire and Resistance, I received a very detailed history of Italy throughout World War 2 by engaging various readings and films. My first reading was about Italian Resistance in 1943-1945. I learned that people stopped favoring Mussolini’s fascist regime at this point because of the aerial bombardment, food shortages, and steeply rising prices of goods. There were strikes in Northern cities where 100 thousand workers were involved. This immediately made me think of the labor movements that have taken place in America throughout history, especially the ones during World War 2. I never knew that there was an entire period from July 25 – September 8, 1943 where there were popular demonstrations celebrating the end of Fasciscm which was concluded in September by a secret armistice between Italy and the Allies. There is never discussion of the fall of Mussolini, or of the armistice signed, in history classes I have taken, let alone all of the internal resistance that took place. I also had no idea that Italy was split in two in the middle of September of 1943, which was a primary reason for the development of various resistances. After this reading, I read a piece that detailed neorealism as a style of film. I had partially learned about neorealism in literature classes in highschool, but I had no idea that in Italian film, it compromises historically and culturally specific manifestations of the aesthetic quality of realism. I also really appreciate how the goal was for Italian filmmakers to display authentic human experience and interaction. Especially in a time like this, I find myself gravitating towards films that are just normal people doing normal things because I miss those interactions. Before watching “Rome Open City,” which was our assigned film of week 3, my professor wanted to make clear the tight knit relationship that film has with history, especially in this film. The script for the film was written in 1944, which is so close to Nazi occupation of half of Italy. The film itself was heart-wrenching – first, with the murder of Pina, and then with the torture and murder of Manifredi, which likely would not have happened if Marina didn’t sell him out for drugs, and finally, with the murder of Don Pietro while all of the young boys were watching.
Pina Shot In Middle Of Street
I think that the point of making this film so brutal was because that is truly how the war was for many people, especially those involved in the resistance. I have always been used to the protagonist having a happy ending because that is a very common plot in American movies. This really showcased the neorealism because it was incredibly real and accurate and they really didn’t sugarcoat anything. “Paisan” was the next film we watched, which had six different episodes taking place all around Italy. Something that my professor noted was that none of the actors in the film were professional or well-known actors which is hardly something ever done in American films. The purpose of this, I thought, is to really convey the genre of neorealism, which I thought was so interesting. In a way, it does make it feel like more of a documentary, but by having knowledge that every scene was carefully planned out, it was mind boggling to see how natural everything was. Another clever thing that the filmmakers did was place us in the middle of the “plot” in every episode. The way that the spectator was simply dropped into the action made it feel much less like I was watching a whole movie, but rather, viewing snippets of memories had by random people.
Scene Where Ally Soldier Plays Harmonica For Italian Boy