Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City instantly and permanently changed the landscape of film history. Made at the end of World War II, the film has been credited with initiating a revolution in and reinvention of modern cinema. This volume offers an original overview of the production history of Rome Open City; some of its key images, the complexity of its political dimensions, and the legacy of the film in public consciousness. It serves as an accessible introduction to one of the major achievements of filmmaking. Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page ix) List of Contributors (page xi) Introduction: Open City: Reappropriating the Old, Making the New (Sidney Gottlieb, page 1) 1 Rossellini, Open City, and Neorealism (Sidney Gottlieb, page 31) 2 The Making of Roma città aperta: The Legacy of Fascism and the Birth of Neorealism (Peter Bondanella, page 43) 3 Celluloide and the Palimpsest of Cinematic Memory: Carlo Lizzani's Film of the Story Behind Open City (Millicent Marcus, page 67) 4 Diverting Clichés: Femininity, Masculinity, Melodrama, and Neorealism in Open City (Marcia Landy, page 85) 5 Space, Rhetoric, and the Divided City in Roma città aperta (David Forgacs, page 106) 6 Mourning, Melancholia, and the Popular Front: Roberto Rossellini's Beautiful Revolution (Michael P. Rogin, page 131) REVIEWS OF OPEN CITY (page 161) Bosley Crowther, New York Times (February 26 and March 3, 1946) (page 161) John Mason Brown, Saturday Review of Literature (April 6, 1946) (page 164) James Agee, The Nation (March 23 and April 13, 1946) (page 167) Filmography (page 171) Select Bibliography (page 189) Index (page 191) "This volume offers a fresh look at the production history of Rome Open City; some of its key images, particularly those representing the city and various types of women; its cinematic influences and affinities; the complexity of its political dimensions, including the film's vision of political struggle and the political uses to which the film was put; and the legacy of the film in public consciousness. It serves as a well-illustrated, up-to-date, and accessible introduction to one of the major achievements of filmmaking."--Jacket Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City instantly changed the landscape of film history. It has been credited with initiating a revolution in and reinvention of modern cinema. This 2004 volume serves as a well illustrated, up to date, and accessible introduction to one of the major achievements of filmmaking.

This volume is an accessible introduction to Rossellini's Rome Open City.