Rome Open City Is an

¶ … Rome Open City" is an Italian movie directed by Roberto Rossellini. The movie begins with an occupied Rome. The setting takes place after August 14, 1943. The initial conflict comes from the attempted arrest of engineer Giorgio Manfredi. The German SS troops wish to capture him for being the leader of the Resistance who oppose Fascists and Nazis. With the assistance of the landlady, he escapes in a parkour style run of jumping across rooftops.

The stereotypical look for help at a friend's house scene plays out at Francesco's building and the woman who lives next door, Pina. There's added drama with Pina revealing she is pregnant and the fiancee of Francesco. At first she doesn't trust him, but with a little bit of conversation she begins to trust him and lets him sit to wait for his friend Francesco. Pina assists in contacting Don Pietro, a helper of the Resistance and a Catholic priest.

Since the Gestapo know of his identity, Giorgio needs don Pietro to transfer funds to a team of Resistance fighters. Not surprisingly, there's a wedding and all of the characters come into play. The audience sees Pina's son as an altar boy, her sister, and Francesco. Marcello (son) plants bombs for the Resistance, the sister, Laura, works in a bar serving Nazis. Laura has several ties with the characters in the film. Aside from being Pina's sister, she's Marina's friend.

Marina is Giorgio's soon to be ex-girlfriend, and an occasional prostitute, who also attends the wedding. The Gestapo come, raid the apartment, arrest almost everyone, particularly Francesco, and Giorgio escapes. Unfortunately, while Francesco is in the truck, Pina makes a run towards him and gets gunned down. She dies from her wounds while her son runs to her screaming for her. This seems all too dramatic, especially since this was her wedding day.

It makes it seem as though Marina was the one who revealed the location and to add further cause to the Resistance, casualties like Pina must be killed. The priest praying for her soul really adds an over the top drama to it that kind of transforms into one of those action movies from the 80's. Marina being the snitch that she is because she wants an out from her impoverished life, reveals the location of the priest and Giorgio.

Even with use of torture, the Nazis could not get Giorgio to reveal the location of the Resistance and dies. The priest would not reveal anything as well and is then executed, not by the Italian firing squad, but by the German commander. This is how the film ends. My favorite scene is when the priest tilts the statues away from each other to demonstrate modesty. The director did a great job of depicting complex and vulnerable women.

Pina, the mother of two and one on the way, was depressed, hopeless, yet still showed strength and bravery amidst all of the chaos brought on by the Resistance. Marina, whom people saw as a traitor, just wanted a better life away from the sadness of her impoverished background. The priest, although providing some of the more comedic moments, really brought the most moving scene when he cursed the Nazi's after praying for Giorgio.

"The Bicycle Thief" took on the neorealist style and used a non-actor for the part of Antonio Ricci as well as his actual son for the part of Antonio's son in the film. It is directed by Vittorio De Sica. The film starts with Antonio finding a job during a time in Italy where man were poor and struggling. As happy as he is to have found a job he needs a bicycle in order to keep it.

The bicycle permits Ricci to work as a poster-hanger, striking paste on walls to put up film flyers. On his first day someone steals the bike. So he runs, the director made sure to have the music set off the journey, to find his bicycle to keep his job.

What happened for him to get the bike, pawning his wife's sheets, seeing all the sheets of other families that pawned theirs, and then getting a job after days online, makes the bike that much more meaningful as its his only means to stability. The best part of this movie was the ability of the director to show a stark, barren, disheartening Rome that most people when viewing Rome are not used to.

The movie took the audience on a tour whilst Antonio and his son looked for his bike showing how society was at the time in that region. The scene at the pizzeria with Antonio letting his son drink some wine and stating one needs "a million lira" to eat pasta like the family they saw, let the audience see more than just a struggling, impoverished father. He didn't get the bike back in the end, even when he saw the bike thief in a brothel.

Although he was tempted to steal another bike, he didn't manage to get it and was instead slapped and insulted only let go by the owner's compassion. The film was amazing in the sense that it depicted real life and real life consequences and also showed how reality is not like Hollywood, it is brutal and filled with hope and despair. "La Strada" is a 1954 Italian drama directed by Federico Fellini. This is the first gilm of his that truly shows his creative style as director.

The film begins with Gelsomina who has to work with Zampano, a strong man whom was partnered with Rosa, Gelsomina's sister, but after Rosa died, decided to take her instead. She was essentially sold to Zampano for 10,000 lire and whisked away to learn how.