Rome Open City Film Analysis

Rome, Open City is a film directed by Roberto Rossellini about the plight of the citizens of Rome during Nazi occupation in 1944. The film starts with a leader of an underground Italian communist leader, Giorgio Manfredi (Marcelo Pagliero), escaping from the Nazi Gestapo atop of the rooftops of Rome. After escaping, Giorgio Manfredi meets a woman named Pina (Anna Magnani) who is the fiancé of another communist party member. Through Pina and her son, Giorgio Manfredi gets in contact with Don Pietro Pelligrini (Aldo Fabrizi). Don Pietro is also a part of the communist movement in Italy, and he delivers a message for Giorgio to fighters outside of the city. Marina Mari (Maria Michi) is a girlfriend of Giorgio, but decides to turn him in to the Gestapo in order to receive drugs and a fur coat. Major Bergmann (Harry Feist) plays the gestapo leader of Rome, and is the interrogator of Giorgio and Don Pietro after he finds them using Marina’s information. Even though he …show more content…
I think that this movies’ biggest strength is that comedy is written into parts of the movie. Even though this could be seen as distasteful, I think that this movie sprinkles in the perfect amount of comedy to make it a masterpiece. Instead of making the story over-dramatic, the story seemed more realistic with the comedy included. The characters seemed more genuine through their frequent use of comedy. Don Pietro’s character, for example, used comedy as a way to make the audience realize that he was a genuine and kind hearted man. When you first meet his character, he is playing soccer with the boys outside and gets hit with the ball on the head. When this happens, he does not get angry at the boys, rather he continues his conversation with Pina’s son. The viewer becomes more and more sympathetic with Don Pietro due to his kindhearted nature, until his untimely death at the hands of the