Roberto Rossellini

Catherine and Alexander, wealthy and sophisticated, drive to Naples to dispose of a deceased uncle's villa... (imdb)

Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his friend Francesco's, and asks Pina, Francesco's fiancée, for help (imdb)

Edmund, a young boy who lives in the destructed Germany after the 2nd World War has to do all kinds of work and tricks to help his family in getting food and barely survive. (imdb)

The film dramatizes about a dozen vignettes from the life of St. Francis and his early followers - starting with their return in the rain to Rivotorlo from Rome when the Pope blessed their Rule and ending with their dispersal to preach. The unconnected chapters are like parables, some with a moral. The slight and comic Ginepro returns naked to St. Mary's of the Angels, having given away his tunic, but not his ricotta... (imdb)

Karen, a young woman from the baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prisoners camp. But the life in Antonio's village, Stromboli, threatened by the vulcano, is a tough one and Karen can not get used to it. (imdb)

Playing a character far older than herself, Bergman portrays a society woman whose life is in ruins after her son's suicide. Attempting to give her life some purpose, she takes the advice of a leftist friend, and begins working with the ill and destitute of Rome. Her insensitive husband Alexander Knox finds Bergman's charitable activities distasteful; when the opportunity presents itself, he has her committed to a mental institution. (All Movie Guide)

Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice.

1661: Cardinal Mazarin dies. In the power vacuum, the young Louis asserts his intention to govern as well as rule. Mazarin's fiscal advisor, Colbert, warns against Fouquet, the Surintendant who's been systematically looting the treasury and wants to be prime minister. Fouquet believes Louis will soon tire of exercizing power; he overplays his hand, offering a bribe to Louis's mistress to be his ally... (imdb)

The documentary is basically an episodic portrait on India, circa 1957-1958; It captures life in flux at that moment in time. "India" is divided into four sections, each documenting the strange interaction between humans and animals, tradition and technology. (imdb)

Rossellini's three-part series is like a Renaissance painting come to life: a portrait of fifteenth-century Florence, ruled by the Medici political dynasty. With a lovely score from composer Manuel de Sica, this grand yet intimate work is a storybook conjuring of a way of life and thought. (criterion.com)

Blaise Pascal struggles to understand the natural world around him, in addition to an inner quest for religious faith. (imdb)

An intimate, psychological study of obsession and existential crisis about Descartes. (criterion.com)

A magnetic Vittorio De Sica is Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa forced by the Nazis to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates. (criterion.com)

This consists of four short films by different directors. Rosselini's 'Chastity' ('Illibatezza') deals with an attractive air hostess who receives the unwelcome attentions of a middle aged American. Godard's 'New World' ('Il Nuovo Mondo') illustrates a post-apocalypse world the same as the pre-apocalyptic one but for an enigmatic change in attitude in most people, including the central character's girlfriend... (imdb)

An account of the last part of Socrates' life, including his trial and execution.

Two-part anthology film, each segment starring Anna Magnani as different women who confront heartache in an unconventional manner.

A married woman who has a lover and receives threats from a young woman who asks him to confess his infidelity to her husband. What she does not know is that blackmail is a cunning plan of your spouse.

Although released anonymously, as was the custom with all films produced by the Italian Navy, La Nave Bianca is the first feature-length effort directed by Roberto Rossellini; it is also very much the work of its co-writer and supervisor Francesco De Robertis. The film combines a documentary look at the Italian Navy during World War II with newsreel combat footage and a scripted love story performed by non-professional actors. (allmovie.com)

Man with a Cross was originally released in Italy as L'Uomo della Croce. Evidently, Roberto Rosselini had some difficulty concentrating on this one. He directed the film at the behest of the fascist government, at a time when his thoughts were probably focussed on his long-anticipated (and never-finished) Desiderio. The religious aspects of the plotline tend to be subordinate to the Mussolini party line. (allmovie.com)

Rossellini's darkly comic satire showcases the great Italian comic Toto as a barber who is imprisoned for murdering his wife's suspected lover. After twenty years, Salvatore leaves the prison walls to find the world he once knew gone. His wife is dead, he encounters one deceitful person after another, and his family and friends are even more disloyal. Salvatore realizes he has no choice but to find a way back to prison where he feels certain he will be happier. (dvdbeaver.com)

In this emotional war drama set in Nazi-occupied Rome, a beautiful bootlegger (Giovanna Ralli) gives sanctuary to three escaped POWs - an American pilot, a Russian sergeant and a British major. By taking them in, she tragically jeopardizes the safety of her Communist lover while the confinement of the trapped prisoners brings their uneasy alliance to a boiling point, symbolizing the chaos of the world around them. (dvdbeaver.com)

A theatrical performance of the trial and death of Joan of Arc.

An overview of the Iron age, primarily in the Italian peninsula.

Epic tale of Garibaldi's quest for Italian reunification.

By concentrating on supremely important questions in a cool, apparently artless way, Rossellini's film (made for TV) forces a very dramatic tension. The life of Saint Augustine during the decadence of the Roman Empire becomes the axis for debates on politics and power, morality and conscience: how can a state survive with Christian morals? From this seemingly impossible (and un-filmable) brief, Rossellini achieves moments of devastating clarity. (surrealmoviez)

Vanina Vanini, a bored, spoiled Roman countess, falls in love with a dedicated young patriot who is in Rome to assassinate a traitor to the brotherhood of the Free Masons. (imdb)

Five portraits of actresses in their "common" life, seen as women rather than movie stars.

Funny cinematic exercise made by Rossellini before his first feature. Something between a Discovery Channel animal documentary and a fable under the sea. (KG)

A documentary on the Beaubourg Museum.

A young Italian pilot is interned in a British prison camp after his plane is shot down during the war against Greece. He falls in love with a doctor's daughter and manages to escape during a bombardment. He reaches home, wounded, just as news arrives of the Greek surrender. (imdb)

The story of Jesus, Rossellini style.

A demon bestows on a self-righteous working photographer's camera the power to smite from the Earth "evil-doers". Naturally, the indignant photographer turns his new weapon on, one by one, his entire village, beginning with the wealthy or illustrious. Soon, the poor he is so supposedly so enamored of become his victims too, so rife with impatience and contempt is he, that the slightest flaw is cause for smiting. Inevitably, he embarks on a task to destroy everyone. (imdb)

Adriano, a used-car dealer and petty opportunist, wishes to leave his past behind and begin a new life with his young wife, Marcella. Troubles soon surface when the sister of an old friend shows up, leading Adriano back to his old prostitute girlfriend, Mimosa, and his needing to deal with his complex sexual past and various relationships.

It is both a monumental cinematic achievement and a profound inquiry into the foundations of Christian faith. Rossellini's sharp eye for historical context made him the ideal director of this rich material. More importantly, his patient delving into the mystery of faith is never superficial but always suffused with search and wonder, as it had been in FRANCIS, GOD'S JESTER and would be in THE MESSIAH. (imdb)

Two sisters: one resides in the quiet country with her handsome newly-married husband; the other leaves for the nearby town where she falls into the trap of prostitution. Her falling for an honest man, however, sees her too ashamed to admit what she has become and she returns to her home village, where she then becomes the object of desire for more than one pursuer.

A satire in which "Perfidious Albion," a big turkey representing England, goes around pecking at the hens, representing the nations of Europe, until defied by a rooster representing Italy. (imdb)

A girl, about ten, tries to catch a butterfly but all the other insects intervene to save it. (imdb)

The film tells the political reconstruction of post-fascist Italy between 1944 and 1953, seen through the career of Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954). (Wikipedia)

A documentary about Sicily and its peculiar customs, with an emphasis on religious rites and the clash of modernity versus traditional values. (KG)

Mid-Century Loves (Italian: Amori di mezzo secolo) is a 1954 Italian anthology historical melodrama film consisting of five segments directed by Glauco Pellegrini, Pietro Germi, Mario Chiari, Roberto Rossellini and Antonio Pietrangeli. (wikipedia.org)

Roberto Rossellini shot the film Psycodrame in 1956 for the Center d'études de radiotélévision. The staging of three "psychodramas" - organized by Professor Jacob Levi Moreno with Anne Ancelin Schutzemberger - gives Rossellini the opportunity to reflect on what can become a particularly congenial acting technique, and, in general, on the potential of didactic tv. (imdb)

A portmanteau film covering each of the seven deadly sins.

The narration of popular participation in the great events of human history, for a monumental account of the development of civilization, from its origins to the present.