In Rome Open City, the director, Rossellini, depicts his characters in certain ways that correspond with Wilheim Reich’s three layers of the personality. Rosellini depicts Marina, Pina, and Captain Bergmann in way that each character closely aligns with a different layer of personality.
In the scene in Marina’s living room where Giorgio and Francesco are spending the night, Rosellini enhances Marina’s surface layer personality to make her seem polite and cordial. She puts on music and dances around the room to offer her guests a drink. She is conscientious. She notices Francesco is not feeling well so she immediately offers him aspirin and tries to make him comfortable by setting up his bed. She is clearly well versed in social niceties and …show more content…
This third layer allows man to be “honest, industrious, cooperative, loving, and, if motivated, rationally hating animal.” (The Mass Psychology of Fascism Preface, pg xi) Rosellini conveys this through Pina’s dialogue. Pina admits that having sex outside of marriage was wrong but she did what was necessary. She also opens up to being very afraid and wonders why God has not helped. These lines reveal her honest and open nature. The dialogue also hints at what a hard worker Pina is. She claims that she is a "penniless widow with a child who had to sell everything just to get by." Rosellini reinforces that claim earlier in the movie when Pina offers to carry Don Pietro’s books. She insists that she does so, saying, "I'm already carrying so much anyways." While this is referring to the bag she is carrying it also references all the extra weight she has been “carrying” around her household. She is trying to be a mother, a fiance, and a sister, all while leading bread revolts and working to support the movement. Rosselini uses all of this to show his viewers the industrious side of Pina. Rosselini portrays Marina as a civil, polite girl who can attend to the needs of her guests. This corresponds to Reich’s first layer. Major Bergmann is depicted to be more in touch with the second level. He is shown as a cruel animal who is driven by a self-imposed sense of superiority. Pina is shown as the third level of personality with her hard work and
In the scene in Marina’s living room where Giorgio and Francesco are spending the night, Rosellini enhances Marina’s surface layer personality to make her seem polite and cordial. She puts on music and dances around the room to offer her guests a drink. She is conscientious. She notices Francesco is not feeling well so she immediately offers him aspirin and tries to make him comfortable by setting up his bed. She is clearly well versed in social niceties and …show more content…
This third layer allows man to be “honest, industrious, cooperative, loving, and, if motivated, rationally hating animal.” (The Mass Psychology of Fascism Preface, pg xi) Rosellini conveys this through Pina’s dialogue. Pina admits that having sex outside of marriage was wrong but she did what was necessary. She also opens up to being very afraid and wonders why God has not helped. These lines reveal her honest and open nature. The dialogue also hints at what a hard worker Pina is. She claims that she is a "penniless widow with a child who had to sell everything just to get by." Rosellini reinforces that claim earlier in the movie when Pina offers to carry Don Pietro’s books. She insists that she does so, saying, "I'm already carrying so much anyways." While this is referring to the bag she is carrying it also references all the extra weight she has been “carrying” around her household. She is trying to be a mother, a fiance, and a sister, all while leading bread revolts and working to support the movement. Rosselini uses all of this to show his viewers the industrious side of Pina. Rosselini portrays Marina as a civil, polite girl who can attend to the needs of her guests. This corresponds to Reich’s first layer. Major Bergmann is depicted to be more in touch with the second level. He is shown as a cruel animal who is driven by a self-imposed sense of superiority. Pina is shown as the third level of personality with her hard work and