Rome: Opener Is Not Necessarily Better

I think Rome, Open City loves the thought of itself being a neorealist film a little too much. This isn’t to say that I disliked Rome, Open City at all, quite the contrary, I think it’s a brilliant work by Fellini and Rossellini and in my second time viewing it I felt as if I picked up some pieces that I missed the first time that I watched it. What I mean about Open City loving the thought of itself being a neorealist film is that it really found it’s stride in the second half in the torture scene and the raw human emotion that was exhibited was the turning point of the film and it’s greatest moments. But the first half of the film, before the vents that lead up to his scene seemed a little forced to be grounded in reality to the point where we’re just following people. In another great neorealist film and one of my personal favorites that we’re watching next week, The Bicycle Thieves, I was amazed by just how much truth and beauty we can see through the eye-glass that shows life itself by following a simple story, but still just following one man.

One of the great burdens that Open City had to carry was that it was simply followed too many characters to feel like we were living their real life and carry the realist feel and turned it into some sort of boring voyeurism. And even though that problem is to be expected to be found considering the title I think if the film were to take that approach then maybe it should have the characters lived be impacted or intertwined more than just standing out like they do. I’m not entirely sure what they must due to fix it (and considering the fact that the film is 60+ years old I’m aware it’s probably too late) but I just wished that the first half tried to follow a similar structure to the second somehow.