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Paisan (Paisà) (Italy, 1945)

Paisan (1945)
October 30, 2011 - 7:00 pm

Nitrate print!
Print courtesy of the Pacific Film Archive

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

One of director Roberto Rossellini’s earliest narrative experiments is this six-episode account of Italy’s liberation that charts the horrors, ironies and poignancies of war stretching from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. Cultures and languages collide as Allied soldiers, street urchins, Franciscan monks and partisans intermingle. The deceptively offhanded production underscores the natural confusion; the moments of human clarity register as revelation.

Producer: Roberto Rossellini. Screenwriter: Sergio Amidei, Klaus Mann, Federico Fellini, Alfred Hayes, Marcello Pagliero, Roberto Rossellini, Rod E. Geiger. Cinematographer: Otello Martelli. Editor: Eraldo Da Roma. Cast: Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Benjamin Emmanuel.

35mm, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles, 120 min.