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Roberto Rossellini |
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Director / Screenwriter / Producer |
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1906 - 1977 |
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Born May 8, Rome,
Italy |
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Key
Production Countries: Italy, France |
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Key Genres: Drama,
Biography, Religious Drama, War Drama, Psychological Drama, Marriage
Drama, Hagiography, Historical Film |
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Key
Collaborators: Renzo Rossellini (Composer/Producer),
Jolanda Benvenuti (Editor), Sergio Amidei (Screenwriter), Mario Nascimbene
(Composer), Ingrid Bergman (Leading Player), Luciano Scaffa
(Screenwriter), Marcella Mariani (Screenwriter), Otello Martelli (Cinematographer), Eraldo Da
Roma (Editor),
Federico Fellini
(Screenwriter) |
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Highly Recommended: Germany, Year Zero (1947)*, The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)*, Europa
'51 (1952)*, Voyage in Italy (1953)* |
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Recommended: Rome,
Open City (1945)*, Paisan (1946)*,
Stromboli (1949)*, General Della Rovere (1959), The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (1966)*, Beaubourg (1977) |
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Worth a Look: L'Amore
(1948), La Paura (1954), India: Matri Bhumi (1959), Viva l'Italia! (1961),
`Acts of the Apostles
[TV] (1969), Socrates [TV] (1971), Augustine of Hippo [TV] (1972), Blaise
Pascal [TV] (1972), Cartesius [TV] (1974), Il Messia (1975) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Strictly
Film School ] [
Roberto
Rossellini and His Italian Cinema: The Search for Realism ]
[
BBC Profile ] [
Wikipedia
] [
Sight & Sound Article (2007) ] |
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Books:
[
The
Adventures of Roberto Rossellini ] [
Roberto
Rossellini:
Magician of the Real ] [
My
Method: Writings and Interviews ]
[
The Films of Roberto Rossellini ] [
Roberto Rossellini ] [
In the Name of the Father, the Daughter, and the Holy Sprirts:
Remembering Roberto Rossellini
] |
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"As
most precisely exemplified in his early, pure neorealistic
films, his camera is relentlessly fixed on the physical
aspects of the world around us. Yet, as defined by his later
works, which both retain and modify much of this temporal
focus, the director is also trying to capture within the
same lense an unseen and spiritual landscape. Thus, the one
constant within all of his films must inevitably remain his
concern for fundamental human values and aspirations,
whether they are viewed with the anger and immediacy of a Rome,
Open City or the detachment of a Viaggio in Italia."
-
Stephen
L. Hanson (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998) |
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"Distinguished
Italian film-maker, at his most forceful in the post-war
years. Then, he took the world by storm with a series of
dramatic and painful films depicting the horrifying
aftermaths of war that were instrumental, together with
films by
Vittorio De Sica
and others, in boosting the prestige of the Italian cinema."
-
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Rossellini
was less a filmmaker than someone who observed the world
through film. He had worked his way toward the idea that any
situation could be made intelligible and moving by film and
that "human stories" were natural illustrations of
history and politics. Rossellini though that "The real
creative artist in the cinema is someone who can get the
most out of everything he sees - even if he sometimes does
this by accident"." -
David
Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002) |
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"A master of Italian neorealism, Rossellini created a number of
passionately objective films about Italy at war (Open City,
45; Paisan, 46). He then moved on to intense character
studies (Stromboli, 50) before lensing a series of stark,
slowly unfolding historical essays in the form of drama (The
Rise of Louis XIV, 66; Socrates, 70)." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"I do not want to make
beautiful films, I want to make useful films." -
Roberto Rossellini |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include L'Uomo dalla croce (1943), Dov'è la libertà...?
(1954), and Era notte a Roma (1960). |
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