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Open City
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786303238111
Format: Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 6303238114
Label: Kino Video
Languages: German (Original Language), AnalogItalian (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Kino Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Kino Video
Release Date: June 27, 2000
Running Time: 105 minutes
Studio: Kino Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1945
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Editorial Review:
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 semidocumentary 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Prompt and perfect
Prompt and perfect.....and, of course, A Classic (for this American guy and his bella Italian wife)
Rating:  - Unique and Powerful.
I have to agree with a couple of the reviewers here that this film is rather dated, but I can think of few movies from the late forties, even the great ones, that the same thing can't be said about. Open City captivates the viewer almost immediately as it is a moving story. With our first glimpse of Manfredi on the balcony we get a pretty good idea about what the plot will concern. I found it to be legitimately suspenseful and a classic in every sense of the word. One must remember that artists like ... Read More
Rating: - Unique and Powerful.
I have to agree with a couple of the reviewers here that this film is rather dated, but I can think of few movies from the late forties, even the great ones, that the same thing can't be said about. Open City captivates the viewer almost immediately as it is a moving story. With our first glimpse of Manfredi on the balcony we get a pretty good idea about what the plot will concern. I found it to be legitimately suspenseful and a classic in every sense of the word. One must remember that artists like ... Read More
Rating: - A most enduring and powerful classic
Open City is a classic that nearly defies classification of genre. Although hailed by serious critics as a neorealist masterpiece, and understandably so, it's strength, ironically, lies in its starker resemblence to melodrama, similar to Luchino Visconti's The Damned. What makes Open City a masterpiece is not only its trim, forceful screenplay but Rossellini's ability to utilize the wartime, grainy film stock and presence of the actual, newly defeated fascist army to portray a sense of immediate reality ... Read More
Rating:  - DVD quality poor...Actual Movie Excellent.
A beautiful and gripping story is marred by the use of poor movie print when transferred to DVD. I would have to believe there is a better copy of the movie available to transfer to DVD. A five star movie is reduced to 3 stars by the poor DVD.
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