Roberto Rossellini Is 100 Years Old

Germany Year Zero is even grimmer than usual -- it was on TCM a couple weeks ago. I'd never even heard of The Messiah.

http://moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2006/Rossellini.html

Since the current DVD print of Open City is pretty terrible, maybe I'll go opening night to see the restoration.

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2006/11/you-must-change-your-life-films-of.html

New Criterion war trilogy box is predictably good-looking and full of good supplements. Films still donot look 'perfect' and shouldn't.

You can redress the ILX '40s poll dis of R.R. now.

to wit:

http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1436

want this box.

The restorations of Open City and Paisan were revelatory; they've really never SOUNDED this good.

That's bcz you can hear them at all!

What a strange and beautiful film Voyage in Italy is - wonder if Kiarostami knows it, parts of it def brought to mind 'Taste of Cherry' etc.

heh, many pointed out that Certified Copy is kind of a remix! He most definitely knows it.

ahh thanks, yeah Certified Copy is an even closer fit

Been years since I've seen it.

India: Matri Bhumi is a v sensitive documentary, besides being v beautiful to look at.

Love to see St Francis one day.

Tour dates for new print of Voyage to Italy (or whatever you wish to call it):

http://blog.criterioncast.com/post/49443154913/theatrical-dates-for-janus-films-tour-of

the commentary from laura mulvey on the voyage to italy dvd is excellent, although i think it is the only such critical commentary i have bothered to play for its duration

Mubi, Thomson get around to the Ingrid films

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-ingrid-bergman-and-roberto-rossellini

ok, not Mubi, Christ I need an edit function

it's too bad that they didn't include "fear" on the criterion set, it's not the best of the films but neither is it the worst--it has one of the better bergman performances for sure.

i admit that nearly all of rossellini/bergman films i've seen (and even the pre- and post-bergman rossellinis) have some significant flaw(s), be it in the writing or the filmmaking or the acting, that keep me from loving them unreservedly. this is particularly true of the war films (though "paisan" is a few notches above the others) and esp. "stromboli" and "europa 51." I feel like I can embrace them as much for the films they are striving to me (or I'd want them to be) as the films they are.

the major exception of "flowers of st francis" which is pretty amazing from beginning to end, it finds a tone that i can't recall from any other film and sticks to it.

i know i just managed to write three short paragraphs without saying anything of note, sorry.

The Prof. in Journey to Italy did seem -- well not inadequate -- but not exactly adequate either.

The David Thomson mini-bk on Ingrid is worthwhile reading, has a nice 'what if they hadn't met' alternative history.

that's a more interesting question to ask of rossellini than of bergman -- bergman basically went back to what she had been up to before she met him, albeit after having to make amends with hollywood.

at the same token, i can well imagine a non-bergmanified rossellini eventually settling into those amazing historical television films that comprise the bulk of his late-career work.

also isabella rossellini might take issue with that alternate history :)

well her post-RR Hollywood roles were nowhere as good as pre

true, but perhaps that has as much to do w/ her aging i think. then as now there aren't too many plumb roles for actresses in their mid-late 40s and up. she was certainly in several prestige productions.

too bad she didn't get with Sirk or Sam Fuller

Having a Blu-Ray player certainly gives one options. Now I get to watch Stromboli.

it's a mixed bag!

the film that is, not blu-ray

all his films are!

no no no no

I have that box, admittedly Voyage and Europa are the ~perfect ones.

I'd agree with that. But Stromboli's highs are right alongside.

Rome, Open City not perfect?

Also love his doc on India. Little seen tho'

too many evil gays in ROC

Didn't notice any.

Stromboli was...OK? One of the few times I'll succumb to biographical/extra-diagetic crit: Bergman's star power makes everyone, including her cloddish husband, look wan, therefore her plight is more moving than it should be. Good proto-Antonioni bits of Bergman wandering in a daze through rocks and architecture.

Out of curiosity, which cut did you watch?

I need to find a German cut of Germany, Year Zero. It looks beautiful but I can't handle the Italian dubbing.

Is there no BFI DVD of it?!

Is the BFI release German? I don't mind occasionally buying stuff, though admittedly that happens infrequently these days. I should have re-phrased my initial question as I need to find a torrent of...!

Yeah, the very recent BFI DVD is in German w/ English subs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Germany-Year-Zero-Anna-Magnani/dp/B00P6R2QK4/ref=sr_1_6?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1438158570&sr=1-6&keywords=rossellini+war+trilogy

Yeah the BFI version also includes L'Amore, so £12 is a decent price.

Looks great - only seen it on youtube myself. Incredibly powerful, however you get to it.

The real ruins of Berlin has got to be one of the greatest ever movie sets.

Interesting story behind the financing of Rome, open City on wiki. It isn't quite as powerful as Germany Year Zero, but it is still a great movie. Giovanna Galletti's cold blooded, manipulative gestapo agent is so horribly brilliant.

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/data/13030/8d/ft709nb48d/figures/ft709nb48d_00003.jpg

tick.jpg

I'd no idea my uni library had the Criterion edition of General della Rovere. I'm watching tonight.

Possibly the funniest thing I've ever read. Anna Magnani, when asked by Franco Zeffirelli if notorious ladykiller Roberto Rossellini was "very well endowed": "No, he's a son of a bitch. That's why we all fall for him. He's a cunt."

— ℑ 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲 (@NickPinkerton) July 19, 2019

Clauderains.jpg

I watched Paisan today, don’t think I really got it

interesting to read that Germany Year Zero was mostly shot in a studio and used rear screen projections, it didn’t seem obvious to me watching the film. Also I didn’t know that critics at the time compared it negatively to Rome Open City and Paisan and considered it unrealistic

it was grim but I thought it was beautiful. of the three films in the WWII trilogy though, my favorite is still Rome Open City

But a two-month delay in shooting because of financial problems and, according to Lizzani, "an emotional storm with Magnani" who had become Rossellini's mistress, led to unforeseen problems. During the month that they were in Rome, the starving German cast had begun to eat so much pasta that they grew immense: "The pieces didn't go together on the editing table, because the tall and thin gentleman walking the streets in Berlin, and approaching a door, when the door was opened was another person, well fed, and with the face of well-being." Filming was suspended for two weeks while the Germans went on a diet.

I remember reading somewhere that carbolic acid was injected into any fruit that was part of the set, to stop starving Germans from eating it all!

The Flowers of St. Francis is lovely, a film about kindness and faith, exactly what I needed right now. I was surprised to see that it’s mostly an amateur cast of monks

I watched Open City around 20 years ago and I liked it. Didn't watch any more of his films until I watched Voyage in Italy 5 months ago, then watched Stromboli yesterday. Why did I take so long to get to these? Great stuff. Now I need to watch the rest of his major movies.