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Special Features
New, restored high-definition digital transfers
Video introductions by Roberto Rossellini to all three films (1963)
New video interviews with Adriano Apra, Virgilio Fantuzzi & more!
Audio commentary on Rome Open City by film scholar Peter Bondanella
Once Upon a Time . . . Rome Open City, a 2006 documentary on the making of
"Rossellini and the City" film scholar Mark Shiel
Excerpts from a Rossellini discussion at Rice University (1970)
"Into the Future," a new visual essay about the War Trilogy
"Roberto Rossellini," a 2001 documentary by Carlo Lizzani
Letters from the Front: Carlo Lizzani on Germany Year Zero
Italian credits and prologue for Germany Year Zero
New illustrated essay by film scholar Thomas Meder
New and improved English subtitle translations
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by director Irene Bignardi and others
Video introductions by Roberto Rossellini to all three films (1963)
New video interviews with Adriano Apra, Virgilio Fantuzzi & more!
Audio commentary on Rome Open City by film scholar Peter Bondanella
Once Upon a Time . . . Rome Open City, a 2006 documentary on the making of
"Rossellini and the City" film scholar Mark Shiel
Excerpts from a Rossellini discussion at Rice University (1970)
"Into the Future," a new visual essay about the War Trilogy
"Roberto Rossellini," a 2001 documentary by Carlo Lizzani
Letters from the Front: Carlo Lizzani on Germany Year Zero
Italian credits and prologue for Germany Year Zero
New illustrated essay by film scholar Thomas Meder
New and improved English subtitle translations
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by director Irene Bignardi and others
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Allies had barely driven the Nazis out of Rome when Roberto Rosselini went to work on Open City, considered by most to be his greatest work. Shot on bits and short ends of scavenged film, this film helped define Italian neorealism. Audiences were convinced that the actors were all amateurs (they weren't) and the whole film was improvised (it wasn't; the three screenwriters included Federico Fellini). With its semi documentary camera style and use of actual locations, the film does feel very real. Of course, so does the opening half-hour of Saving Private Ryan, and like that film Open City is at its heart a classic war yarn any Hollywood studio would feel at home with. The story involves members of the Italian underground trying to smuggle badly needed cash out of Nazi-occupied Rome to partisan fighters in the mountains, while the Nazis are hunting down one of the underground, a notorious freedom fighter and seditionist. Anna Magnani (an actor well established in her own country who became an international star with this film) is often singled out for her portrayal as the pregnant, unwed woman who gets caught up in the action on her wedding day, but the entire cast is topnotch. The sparse subtitles are both a blessing and a curse--there is less to read, which allows the viewer to concentrate on the visuals, but there are times when non-Italian-speakers will feel like they're missing out on some juicy dialogue. --Geof Miller
Product Description
Roberto Rossellini is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. And it was with his trilogy of films made during and after World War II — Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Ground Zero — that he left his first transformative mark on cinema. With their stripped-down aesthetic, largely nonprofessional casts, and unorthodox approaches to storytelling, these intensely emotional works were international sensations and effectively launched the neorealist movement. Shot in battle-ravaged Italy and Germany, these three films are some of our most lasting, humane documents of devastated postwar Europe, containing universal images that encompass both tragedy and hope.
Rome Open City
This was Roberto Rossellini’s revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it. Though told with a bit more melodramatic flair than the other films that would form this trilogy and starring well-known actors — Aldo Fabrizi as a priest helping the partisan cause and Anna Magnani in her breakthrough role as the fiancée of a resistance member — Rome Open City (Roma città aperta) is a shockingly authentic experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II, with immediacy in every frame. Marking a watershed moment in Italian cinema, this galvanic work was an international sensation, garnering awards around the globe and leaving the beginnings of a new film movement in its wake.
Paisan
Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to his breakout Rome Open City was the ambitious, enormously moving Paisan (Paisà), which consists of six episodes set during the liberation of Italy at the end of World War II, taking place across the country, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. With its documentary-like visuals and its intermingled cast of actors and nonprofessionals, Italians and their American liberators, this look at the struggles of different cultures to communicate and of people to live their everyday lives in extreme circumstances is equal parts charming sentiment and vivid reality. A long-missing treasure of Italian cinema, Paisan is available here for the first time in its full original release version.
Germany Year Zero
The concluding chapter of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy is the most devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin shown through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with a sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black-market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher. Germany Year Zero (Deutschland im Jahre Null) is a daring, gut-wrenching look at the consequences of fascism, for society and the individual.
Rome Open City
This was Roberto Rossellini’s revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it. Though told with a bit more melodramatic flair than the other films that would form this trilogy and starring well-known actors — Aldo Fabrizi as a priest helping the partisan cause and Anna Magnani in her breakthrough role as the fiancée of a resistance member — Rome Open City (Roma città aperta) is a shockingly authentic experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II, with immediacy in every frame. Marking a watershed moment in Italian cinema, this galvanic work was an international sensation, garnering awards around the globe and leaving the beginnings of a new film movement in its wake.
Paisan
Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to his breakout Rome Open City was the ambitious, enormously moving Paisan (Paisà), which consists of six episodes set during the liberation of Italy at the end of World War II, taking place across the country, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. With its documentary-like visuals and its intermingled cast of actors and nonprofessionals, Italians and their American liberators, this look at the struggles of different cultures to communicate and of people to live their everyday lives in extreme circumstances is equal parts charming sentiment and vivid reality. A long-missing treasure of Italian cinema, Paisan is available here for the first time in its full original release version.
Germany Year Zero
The concluding chapter of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy is the most devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin shown through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with a sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black-market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher. Germany Year Zero (Deutschland im Jahre Null) is a daring, gut-wrenching look at the consequences of fascism, for society and the individual.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By C. Bleakley
Format:DVD
Wow, a week after this has been released there's still no reviews. I'd like to think that's because this set is jammed with such great content--movies and extras--that even the early adopters are still absorbing it.
It seems that Criterion thought long and hard about release #500. And it shows. These are three extraordinary movies. They're all over 60 years old, but they still pack an emotional and cinematic wallop.
"Open City" is the most familiar and revered title here. It has lost little of it's power or immediacy. Maybe the melodrama is a bit more obvious to our jaded 21st century sensibilities, but that doesn't mean you won't get caught up in the story. Short, plump Aldo Fabrizi plays one of the least unlikely resistance heroes imaginable, and Anna Magnani is nothing short of iconic. This may not be the birth of Italian Neo-realism, but it's certainly a precocious infancy.
"Paisan," here in its first US DVD release, was Rossellini's follow-up to "Open City." It seems to beg the question, how imperfect can a movie be and still be great? The acting is uneven to say the least (arguably the amateurs are more convincing that the professionals), not all of the six short story-like episodes are equally compelling, and most of them end with an unsatisfying abruptness. But on some very basic level, these imperfections just don't matter. In one of the special features, Martin Scorcese makes a very telling distinction between "realism" and "authenticity" and this film never feels less than authentic, often chillingly so.
"Germany Year Zero" is the most problematic of the films, if only because it's so heartbreaking, few people will want to sit through it more than once. It's nonetheless an amazng feat of sympathetic imagination, as Rossellini brings neo-realism to the ravaged streets of post-war Berlin. It's almost as if he's apologizing for depicting the Germans in "Open City" as so single-mindedly villianous.
I've blathered on and on yet I've barely scratched the surface. Virtually all the extra features are worthwhile, especially Adriano Apra's comments on each film. Picture quality, though imperfect, is far superior to the previous releases of "Open City" and "Germany Year Zero." Sadly, only "Open City" includes a commentary track, but more so than a lot of great movies, these films speak for themselves. An essential purchase for film buffs.
It seems that Criterion thought long and hard about release #500. And it shows. These are three extraordinary movies. They're all over 60 years old, but they still pack an emotional and cinematic wallop.
"Open City" is the most familiar and revered title here. It has lost little of it's power or immediacy. Maybe the melodrama is a bit more obvious to our jaded 21st century sensibilities, but that doesn't mean you won't get caught up in the story. Short, plump Aldo Fabrizi plays one of the least unlikely resistance heroes imaginable, and Anna Magnani is nothing short of iconic. This may not be the birth of Italian Neo-realism, but it's certainly a precocious infancy.
"Paisan," here in its first US DVD release, was Rossellini's follow-up to "Open City." It seems to beg the question, how imperfect can a movie be and still be great? The acting is uneven to say the least (arguably the amateurs are more convincing that the professionals), not all of the six short story-like episodes are equally compelling, and most of them end with an unsatisfying abruptness. But on some very basic level, these imperfections just don't matter. In one of the special features, Martin Scorcese makes a very telling distinction between "realism" and "authenticity" and this film never feels less than authentic, often chillingly so.
"Germany Year Zero" is the most problematic of the films, if only because it's so heartbreaking, few people will want to sit through it more than once. It's nonetheless an amazng feat of sympathetic imagination, as Rossellini brings neo-realism to the ravaged streets of post-war Berlin. It's almost as if he's apologizing for depicting the Germans in "Open City" as so single-mindedly villianous.
I've blathered on and on yet I've barely scratched the surface. Virtually all the extra features are worthwhile, especially Adriano Apra's comments on each film. Picture quality, though imperfect, is far superior to the previous releases of "Open City" and "Germany Year Zero." Sadly, only "Open City" includes a commentary track, but more so than a lot of great movies, these films speak for themselves. An essential purchase for film buffs.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Two of these three Rossellini films made at the very end of WWll are considered classics: Rome, Open City, and Paisan. The third film, the disturbing Germany Year Zero has always been controversial and was a failure, though it is loved dearly by some.
The copies of the films are fantastic, especially Rome, Open City and Germany Year Zero, pristine, sharply focused black and white and Rossellini's great mastery of light, shadow and intensity and contrast of that palette is astoundingly captured. Paisan is a very good copy, though some shots are a little dim or faded looking. For those who know Rome and Paisan from VHS copies that circulated there is no comparison in any sense -- these are tremendously vivid, absolutely complete (the VHS copies I owned clipped small sections and had jumpy cuts), with superb sound tracks (that means tolerating Rossellini's brother's music which can be intrusive, especially in Paisan though one must assume auteur Rossellini wanted this since he was notoriously a complete control freak.)
Most people with any interest in film will know that Rome, Open City stunned Europe and was credited with creating a movement called 'neo-realism', though one of the late interviews with Rossellini included in the many invaluable extras shows him mocking the term. Whatever one calls it, much that happened in European film in the late forties and early 50's was influenced by both this film and Paisan -- Godard and Truffaut not to mention Fellini (who had his first serious film jobs assisting Rossellini on Rome and Paisan), De Sica and a host of others all traced their choices back to Rossellini's courage and vision.
Rossellini in that interview is a little defensive about Rome, Open City and the extras include the flamboyant stories of its making -- not all true (electricity was stolen -- true -- film stock had to be begged, borrowed or stolen and there was very little available, much of it of poor quality -- true; the film, contrary to standard claims, was not improvised at all, there was a completely written script shot precisely as written. Only a few of the prominent actors were amateurs, the great Anna Magnani was a well known film and stage actress and Aldo Fabrizi, the priest, was a big movie star though as a comic -- it was on his fame that Rossellini was able to raise his tiny budget). All the interiors were shot in a small film studio, not on location; the few exterior shots included serious risks though the one where Magnani chases after her finance who the Germans have seized and herded into a truck along with other men only to be shot as he screams at her to go back has to be one of the most memorable scenes in all of movie history even if her performance is a little operatic. Fabrizi is clearly more comfortable and convincing in the mildly quirky or funny scenes (probably written by Fellini)than when he needs to be very serious or righteous in facing the Nazi villain (glycerine tears are clearly used for him in one scene). But the scenes of his execution are very moving and the final image of his pupils, they've sneaked out of the city to see him die, slowly roaming off back to Rome is another unforgettable image.
Paisan is a different matter. This was entirely improvised though Klaus Mann (son of Thomas) had written a detailed scenario and another American, Alfred Hayes, had written a script. Rossellini discarded both except for a sequence in Rome written by Hayes -- the weakest stretch of the movie. It is six episodes, all short stories, though only a few have a neat beginning, middle and end. All but one of the performers was an amateur, the Italians were found in the different locations. The best of these are the story in Naples where a black G.I. meets up with a street urchin who is not to be trusted. The ruins of Naples, the drunk G.I. stumbling into a traditional Neapolitan puppet show (I suspect a Fellini idea), the street life of the jammed but ruined city and the devastating final scene are amazing. The final story where a group of Partisans and GI's (all cast from life) are hemmed in and eventually slaughtered by a small group of ruthless Germans on the marshes of the Po is stunning from every angle and was a tremendous influence on post war avant-garde film making.
Germany Year Zero is so horrifying it's hard to get to grips with. A young boy in a devastated Berlin where the Germans are starving is the sole support of a dysfunctional family and eventually takes drastic action. The story seems forced to some but the way it is shot and Rossellini's evident identification with the desperate, terrified and confused child carries one through some obvious contrivances. This has several brilliantly managed exterior scenes of the boy wandering in despair through the bombed out city that are tough to sit through but worth it.
The features are amazing, consistently interesting, sophisticated, enormously informative even when commentators contradict one another. A film about how the movies were assembled is revelatory. A photo montage of Rossellini's until now mysterious affair with a German woman (while he was married and seeing other women, he left her for the impossible Magnani much to his eventual regret) is stunning and moving.
When the films were shown on French TV Rossellini recorded introductions (watch the movies first) and those are invaluable. But some issues about Rossellini are scanted -- his earlier work in the Fascist film industry, which eventually cost him much of his popularity in Italy when it was revealed, the details of his monstrously difficult personality are left a little vague (though the letters written to and read by his only Italian collaborator on Germany year Zero, which include references to his idiosyncratic interaction with the slightly crazy Marlene Dietrich certainly convey a lot).
There is also his use of homosexuality to demonstrate the most unthinkable of all evils (the swishy but vicious Gestapo officer, his looming lesbian sidekick in Rome, Open City -- as though the Nazis tolerated open or even suspected homosexuals, they imprisoned or killed those they caught and none could have made a career in the Gestapo of all organizations, the pedophiles in Germany year Zero -- more plausible, maybe, but handled with a heavy hand) -- that's disturbing (in one of the late interviews Rossellini seems to apologize for this but doesn't go into detail). So he wasn't perfect or simple...
But this is the sort of treatment all great films should get and I can't imagine being without it.
The copies of the films are fantastic, especially Rome, Open City and Germany Year Zero, pristine, sharply focused black and white and Rossellini's great mastery of light, shadow and intensity and contrast of that palette is astoundingly captured. Paisan is a very good copy, though some shots are a little dim or faded looking. For those who know Rome and Paisan from VHS copies that circulated there is no comparison in any sense -- these are tremendously vivid, absolutely complete (the VHS copies I owned clipped small sections and had jumpy cuts), with superb sound tracks (that means tolerating Rossellini's brother's music which can be intrusive, especially in Paisan though one must assume auteur Rossellini wanted this since he was notoriously a complete control freak.)
Most people with any interest in film will know that Rome, Open City stunned Europe and was credited with creating a movement called 'neo-realism', though one of the late interviews with Rossellini included in the many invaluable extras shows him mocking the term. Whatever one calls it, much that happened in European film in the late forties and early 50's was influenced by both this film and Paisan -- Godard and Truffaut not to mention Fellini (who had his first serious film jobs assisting Rossellini on Rome and Paisan), De Sica and a host of others all traced their choices back to Rossellini's courage and vision.
Rossellini in that interview is a little defensive about Rome, Open City and the extras include the flamboyant stories of its making -- not all true (electricity was stolen -- true -- film stock had to be begged, borrowed or stolen and there was very little available, much of it of poor quality -- true; the film, contrary to standard claims, was not improvised at all, there was a completely written script shot precisely as written. Only a few of the prominent actors were amateurs, the great Anna Magnani was a well known film and stage actress and Aldo Fabrizi, the priest, was a big movie star though as a comic -- it was on his fame that Rossellini was able to raise his tiny budget). All the interiors were shot in a small film studio, not on location; the few exterior shots included serious risks though the one where Magnani chases after her finance who the Germans have seized and herded into a truck along with other men only to be shot as he screams at her to go back has to be one of the most memorable scenes in all of movie history even if her performance is a little operatic. Fabrizi is clearly more comfortable and convincing in the mildly quirky or funny scenes (probably written by Fellini)than when he needs to be very serious or righteous in facing the Nazi villain (glycerine tears are clearly used for him in one scene). But the scenes of his execution are very moving and the final image of his pupils, they've sneaked out of the city to see him die, slowly roaming off back to Rome is another unforgettable image.
Paisan is a different matter. This was entirely improvised though Klaus Mann (son of Thomas) had written a detailed scenario and another American, Alfred Hayes, had written a script. Rossellini discarded both except for a sequence in Rome written by Hayes -- the weakest stretch of the movie. It is six episodes, all short stories, though only a few have a neat beginning, middle and end. All but one of the performers was an amateur, the Italians were found in the different locations. The best of these are the story in Naples where a black G.I. meets up with a street urchin who is not to be trusted. The ruins of Naples, the drunk G.I. stumbling into a traditional Neapolitan puppet show (I suspect a Fellini idea), the street life of the jammed but ruined city and the devastating final scene are amazing. The final story where a group of Partisans and GI's (all cast from life) are hemmed in and eventually slaughtered by a small group of ruthless Germans on the marshes of the Po is stunning from every angle and was a tremendous influence on post war avant-garde film making.
Germany Year Zero is so horrifying it's hard to get to grips with. A young boy in a devastated Berlin where the Germans are starving is the sole support of a dysfunctional family and eventually takes drastic action. The story seems forced to some but the way it is shot and Rossellini's evident identification with the desperate, terrified and confused child carries one through some obvious contrivances. This has several brilliantly managed exterior scenes of the boy wandering in despair through the bombed out city that are tough to sit through but worth it.
The features are amazing, consistently interesting, sophisticated, enormously informative even when commentators contradict one another. A film about how the movies were assembled is revelatory. A photo montage of Rossellini's until now mysterious affair with a German woman (while he was married and seeing other women, he left her for the impossible Magnani much to his eventual regret) is stunning and moving.
When the films were shown on French TV Rossellini recorded introductions (watch the movies first) and those are invaluable. But some issues about Rossellini are scanted -- his earlier work in the Fascist film industry, which eventually cost him much of his popularity in Italy when it was revealed, the details of his monstrously difficult personality are left a little vague (though the letters written to and read by his only Italian collaborator on Germany year Zero, which include references to his idiosyncratic interaction with the slightly crazy Marlene Dietrich certainly convey a lot).
There is also his use of homosexuality to demonstrate the most unthinkable of all evils (the swishy but vicious Gestapo officer, his looming lesbian sidekick in Rome, Open City -- as though the Nazis tolerated open or even suspected homosexuals, they imprisoned or killed those they caught and none could have made a career in the Gestapo of all organizations, the pedophiles in Germany year Zero -- more plausible, maybe, but handled with a heavy hand) -- that's disturbing (in one of the late interviews Rossellini seems to apologize for this but doesn't go into detail). So he wasn't perfect or simple...
But this is the sort of treatment all great films should get and I can't imagine being without it.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent ! A perfect collection of the war that I was in. Robertto Rossellini captured the human side of the WAR. A must have collection.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
expected more
Criterion DVDs are pricey but usually of high quality. This collection let me down. Maybe this was the best they could do. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Trying To Help
4.0 out of 5 stars
As a protest this makes a statement.
As a protest this makes a statement. I don't like that the statement needed to be made. I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch all of it all the way though.
Published 5 months ago by Andy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anna Magnani was Anointed Mother of Rome
The Criterion Collection's recent release of "Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy (Rome Open City / Paisan / Germany Year Zero), presents us with clean, remastered copies of these... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Stephanie DePue
3.0 out of 5 stars
Paisa
I have mixed feelings about the film Paisa. Although I liked that the film told the stories of several different people, the fact that the film only gave you one glimpse at their... Read more
Published on May 11, 2011 by Jamie
4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is for Paisan only
If there's one thing movies need, it's actors who can play the roles. Directors need people who are trained to perform their characters as best as the director visions them. Read more
Published on May 10, 2011 by nottheaveragemoviegoer
3.0 out of 5 stars
interesting visually, but questionable in other respects
These are problematical films from a problematical director. Rossellini's early career and life were tied up with Italian fascism. He was a close friend of Mussolini's son. Read more
Published on May 17, 2010 by Mark bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movies- every one of them
These movies are the real deal about conditions in Italy and Europe during WWII.
You'll cry, laugh, hate and love and be amazed at the endurance of the people who
had to... Read more
You'll cry, laugh, hate and love and be amazed at the endurance of the people who
had to... Read more
Published on May 2, 2010 by D. Simms
4.0 out of 5 stars
a grim masterpiece
Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy contains the films "Rome Open City," "Paisan," and "Germany Year Zero" These three films made near the end of and after World War II are very... Read more
Published on April 26, 2010 by Ted
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rosselini's War
Made under extreme conditions Roberto Rosselini's "War Trilogy" is a fantastic look into how people deal with war on their own soil. Read more
Published on April 14, 2010 by Timothy Buchalski
2.0 out of 5 stars
Paisan
Wait for a new transfer. The rating is for the mediocre HSV 1987 videotape of this powerful film. The print is contrasty, and the transfer so careless that the last half hour of... Read more
Published on May 30, 2007 by R. Merritt
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