DVDebut: Rossellini's ERA NOTTE A ROMA

What a pleasure it is to see ERA NOTTE A ROMA, one of Roberto Rossellini’s lesser-known works (at least here in America) out on DVD. Made in 1960, the year after his popular General della Rovere but six years prior to his landmark, documentary-like The Rise of Louis XIV, this long and sometimes melodramatic but still quite wonderful movie is a fine addition to the history of WWII Italy.

The film begins with an exchange of money for supplies between some farmers and a group of nuns. If one of the sisters puts you in mind of the Joan Collins/Seawife brand of devotion-cum-eyeliner, do not despair: There's good reason for this. From the country we're whisked to Rome, along with a band of allied soldiers on the lam from the Germans. Hiding, escaping, hiding again -- in attics, churches, even the home of Italian aristocracy -- the soldiers and their Italian partisans show us the Italy of that day, where, as the American Army approaches and the Germans begin to withdraw, there are suddenly no more Italian fascists in view.

To his credit, Rossellini makes clear the behavior of the Italians during the war, though this was certainly little different from that of Spaniards, French -- or any conquered people. Populaces tend to go with their conquerors; it's safer, in the short run, at least. The central Italian character, the black market nun, is played by Giovanna Ralli, an actress who had a big career in Italy (approaching 74, she's still working) but a lesser international one. She is as good as I have seen her in this film, and its DVD release should call some merited attention to her work. Also in the international cast is Britisher Leo Genn, Sergei Bondarchuk (the noted Russian actor/writer/director) and German actor Hannes Messemer -- with Italian stalwarts Paola Stoppa, Enrico Maria Salerno and Sergio Fantoni in choice roles. Renato Salvatori appears here, too, as Ralli's espoused, in the same year that he made Visconti's classic Rocco and His Brothers.

What Rosselini (and his three co-writers Amidei, Fabbri and Rondi) have achieved is not a major wartime epic but rather a small-scale but lengthy look at the ways in which a society survives war, using everything at its disposal, learning to trust some while discarding others and making the transition from living under one long-term occupier to the next (short-term). Bringing his special blend of realism/humanism to the mix, Rossellini surprises us with characters who keep growing and events, both good and bad, that help them on their way. NOTE: My review of Rossellini's other new DVD release, Dov'è la libertà , appears on the GreenCine GURU Reviews site.