For a director whose best work is characterised by an abundant humility and acute social realism, it's perhaps surprising that Italian visionary Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977) began his career directing propaganda material for Vittorio Mussolini. Having helmed a handful of short films, the director cut his teeth on several features commissioned by the Fascists at the time of World War II.
Roman realism
After the Liberation, Rossellini received international acclaim as a founding father of neorealism, the influential cinematic style also adopted by Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thieves). Released in consecutive years from 1945 to 1947, his radical masterworks Rome, Open City, Paisà and Germany, Year Zero encapsulate the humanistic approach and rough visual style for which neorealism became famous. Collectively, they form a loose trilogy concerning the effects of war. The films are notable for their authentic locations and natural performances.
Co-written with a young Federico Fellini, Rome, Open City remains Rossellini's best-known picture. A sobering effort set in Nazi-occupied Rome, the film balances documentary-level detail with dramatically staged spectacle, including a harrowing inquisition and a heart-rending execution. Released just months after the end of the war, the film starred Anna Magnani, who went on to appear in the director's striking L'Amore (1948).
The Auteur and Ingrid
The war trilogy won Rossellini the admiration not only of leading international critics but also of popular Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, who felt moved to write to the director declaring her eagerness to work with him. Bergman's letter led to the pair's collaboration on another moving wartime drama, Stromboli (1949), then to a high-profile extra-marital affair.
The romance caused a scandal in Hollywood and damaged public perceptions of both actress and director. Their union was eventually ended by another well-documented intrigue, Rossellini's relationship with the scriptwriter Somali Das Gupta. Ironically, Voyage to Italy (1953), Rossellini and Bergman's most successful film together, explores a strained marriage with considerable conviction. An earlier collaboration, the redemption drama Europa 51 (1952), treats potent religious themes.
History and hagiography
Throughout his career, Rossellini's more prominent pictures revealed an interest in the personal conflicts that emerge from issues of faith and the events of war. Hence, The Flowers of St Francis (1950) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954) treat religious figures from the annals of history, while General Della Rovere (1959) centres on the role of the Resistance. Starring neorealist luminary Vittorio De Sica, the latter won the Golden Lion at Venice.
Rossellini turned his attentions to television in the late 1950s and worked extensively for the medium throughout the following decade. His more successful TV projects include the sprawling documentary L'India Visita da Rossellini (1958) and a study of Socrates (1970). The Rise of Louis XIV (1966), a period drama that was made for French TV, received a theatrical release and garnered considerable acclaim.
Later projects for Italian television grew in scope yet occasionally faltered in execution. The Messiah, a reverent treatment of familiar biblical material, was released in 1978. The highlight of Rossellini's uneven later work it's a resonant, though not wholly representative, swan song.
