PAISAN
Paisa

Six episodes of the Allied campaign in Italy done in Rossellěni's improvisational technique using non-professional actors. The stories include a black G.I. whose boots are stolen by an impoverished orphan; a soldier who tries to communicate with a Sardinian peasant girl; a nurse who risks her life to join her partisan-leader lover; the capture and execution of partisans and a thrilling action packed episode of battle in a marshy swamp. The Second of Rossellini's post-war films, following Rome, Open City .

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script; Rossellini, Federico Fellini. Sergio Amedei. Photo; Otello Martelli. Edit; Eraldo Da Roma. Music; Renzo Rossellini. Cast; William Tubbs, Gar Moore, Maria Michi, Carmelo Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Dots Johnson, Dale Edmonds.

ITALY 1946, 115 minutes Original English and Italian dialogue wíth subtitles for the Italian dialogue.
ISBN 1-55881-207-5
$19.95

THE MIRACLE
Part 2 of a trilogy, The Ways of Love

Anna Magnani is a crazed peasant woman who claims her pregnancy is the result of immaculate conception. Rosselini intended this film to be a study of personal faith in the face of social ridicule but the film was denounced by the New York Catholic League as "heretical", Protests, bomb scares and the threat of fines and jail terms (possible at the time since films were not protected as free speech under the first Amendment) forced the distributors to withdraw the film and initiate a landmark lawsuit. The case, which went to the Supreme court, established --- for the first time --that film was, in fact, a form of speech and was protected by the First Amendment. An entertaining and historically important film.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Starring Anna Magnani.

ITALY, 1948, 40m. Subtitled.
ISBN 1-55881-209-1
$19.95

VOYAGE TO ITALY

An unhappily married woman traveling in Italy is swept up in the sensuality of the Neapolitan spirit and enters into an affair. Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Cast; Ingrid Bergman & George Sanders.

ISBN: 1-55881-208-3
Italy 1953 75m Subtitled.
$29.95

ROME, OPEN CITY
Roma, Cittii Aperta

In 1944, during the last days of the German occupation of Italy, the Gestapo hunts for a Resistance leader. Rossellini shot the film in secret on the streets and in apartments of Rome under occupation. Dialog and additional footage were shot later to produce what still remains one of the most incredible testaments of World War Two.

Best Film Cannes

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script; Sergio Amedei, Federico Fellini. Photo; Ubaldo Arata. Music; Renzo Rossellini. Cast; Aide Fabriri, Anna Magnani, Marcel Pagliero, Maria Michi, Harry Feist.

1946 Italy 1945 110m Subtitled
ISBN: 1-55881-206-7
$19.95

FRANCIS, GOD'S JESTER
Francesco Guiliare Di Dio

A young man seeks to fill the emptiness of his life by going off to war. After hearing God's voice commanding him to stop fighting he becomes a pacifist and founds the Franciscan Order. This neo-realist classic focuses on the early years of the Order as the monks face temptation, hardship, doubt and ridicule.

Italy 1950, 88 min. Subtitled.
ISBN: 1-55881-442-6
$29.95

THE RISE TO POWER OF LOUIS XIV
The Rise Of Louis XIV / La Prise Ie Pouvoir Par Louis XIV

From the mid-1960s until his death in 1977, Rossellini made a number of historical feature films, mostly for television. This was one of the few titles of the period that obtained a wide theatrical release. The early life of Louis XIV under the control of the regents and his rise to power as king and the building of Versailles.

“His method here was not only to approach his subject in a direct and realistic manner, to reveal the man beneath the wig, but also to show that power resides in routine and ritual. Impressive is the central documentary-like section detailing life at the court, and the ending, when the little king is divested of his robes.”—Holt’s Foreign Film Guide

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script; Philippe Erlanger. Photo; Georges Leclere. Music; Betty Willemetz, Jean-Marie Patte, Raymond Jourdan, Silvagni, Katharina Renn.

France/ Italy 1966 Color, 100 min. Subtitled.
ISBN: 1-55881-447-7
$39.95

FEAR
Angst / La Paura / Non Credo Piu Amore / I Don't Believe in Love Anymore

The wife of a German factory owner is blackmailed by the mistress of the man she had an affair with while her husband was in a POW camp. This was the last of the six Rossellini-Bergman collaborations. Fittingly, the film encompasses both the virtues and faults of their unique personal and professional collaboration.

The film remains largely unacknowledged not only because of the personalities involved but because of it’s problematic distribution. Rossellini simultaneously shot two versions of the film; one in English and one in German. The German distributor withdrew the film and issued a different version while an Italian distributor dubbed the German version into Italian, changed the ending and gave the film a new title. Rossellini eventually disavowed all versions except for the original English filmed version.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script; Roberto Rossellini, Sergio Amedei, Franz Graf Treuberg. Photo; Peter Heller. Music by Renzo Rossellini. Cast; Ingrid Bergman, Mathias Wieman, Kurt Kreuger, Elsie Aulinger.

Italian/West German Co production. 1954. 82 minutes. Original English filmed version. ISBN 1-55881-435-3
$29.95

VANINA VANINI
The Betrayer

Roberto Rossellini's filming of Stendahl's story. During the persecution of the freemasons under Pope Leo XII, a fugitive assassin falls in love with an Italian Princess from Risorgimento. In her attempt to protect him she inadvertedly ends up betraying him. Exceptional, lavish, violent & sweet. One of his best period pieces.

“Rossellini uses color to brilliant effect and his handling of several different interlocking strands of action is admirable. Social inequality, religious and political corruption, intrigue, guilt and betrayal are everywhere palpable in this high romance of the Risorgimento. “—Holt’s Foreign Film Guide

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script ; Roberto Rossellini, Diego Fabbri, France Solinas, Antonello Trembaderi. Photo; Luciane Trasatti. Music; Renzo Rossellini. Cast; Sandra Mile, Laurent Terzieff Martine Carel, Paolo Steppa, Isabelle Corey, Fernande Cicero.

Italy /France 1961 130mins col Subtitled
ISBN: 1-55881-446-9

OUT OF PRINT / NO LONGER AVAILABLE

GERMANY, YEAR ZERO
Germania, Anno Zero

For his last Neo-Realist film Rossellini took his cameras to a destitute post-war Berlin and employed a mostly non-professional cast to film this story of a young boy who confronts the horror and devastation of Post War Germany -- the year zero of a new nation. His struggle to survive and his tragic end provide a fascinating allegory for rise and fall of Nazi Germany. This interesting Rossellini effort features highly expressionistic camerawork, montage and music.

“[Rossellini’s] compassion shines through and the documentary material is fascinating. The final section when the boy, isolated from others and society, finds a moment to play before dying is Rossellini at his poignant best.”--Holt’s Foreign Film Guide Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Script by Rossellini, Carlo Lizani, Max Kolpet. Photography by Robert Juillard. Music by Renzo Rossellini. Cast: Edmund Moeschka, Franz Kruger, Barbara Hintz, Warner Pittschau, Erich Giihne

Germany, 1947. 78 minutes. German dialog with English subtitles. (Filmed in German).
ISBN 1-55881-019-6
OUT OF PRINT / NO LONGER AVAILABLE

BLAISE PASCAL

A detailed depiction of the Great Mathematician's life. Strange that Rossellini would pick this man's as a subject, as he noted: "(Pascal) was a very boring man who never made love in his life..." Yet, the film does achieve moments of great intensity through its depiction of Pascal's inner struggles including the conflict between scientific thought & religion. This is the original French filmed version.

ISBN: 1-55881-498-1
France 1971 Color 130m Subtitled
$19.95