Paisan

569. PAISAN (1946-ltaly). With MARIA MICHI, GARY MOORE, DALE EDMONDS, DOTS JOHNSON, HARRIET WHITE, BILL TUBBS. Directed and co-scripted by ROBERTO ROSSELLINI. Co-scripted by FEDERICO FELLINI (who is also one Of the assistant directors). Based on stories written by ROSSELLINI, FELLINI and others. This gritty, true-to-life slice Of war as it affects real people is one Of the first – and, justifiably, most famous – Of the post World War II Italian Neo-Realist classics, Neo-Realist films are characterized by on-location shooting (which allows for a documentary-like authenticity that cannot be manufactured on a movie set); sober, socially significant storylines; and, Often, nonprOfessional as well as prOfessional actors even in starring roles. Here, Rossellini employs Neo-Realist techniques to create an innovative motion picture experience. He brilliantly connects six separate stories, each dealing with Italian and American soldiers, nurses or civilians meeting under battle conditions on various fronts during World War Il’s Battle Of Italy. Arguably the two most powerful are set in Florence and the Po Valley. In the former, an American nurse searches for her Italian partisan lover; in the latter, partisans and American GIs unite to do battle against the Germans, with tragic results. Ultimately, in its vivid depiction Of the realities Of war the film becomes a poignant anti-war statement. According to the film historian David Thomson, “(In film there is an accumulation Of fragments: human moments, all rendered with astonishing clarity] capable Of sustaining an entire feature, but packed together to suggest the total experience Of Italy. The achievement is a lesson in how to watch and see: not just as street scene observers, but as beholders Of hi5toiy in the making. Paisan is the truest Second World War movie…”The film earned an Academy Award nomination for its story and screenplay-a most unusual accomplishment for a non-English language film. In Italian, French, German and English, with English subtitles. 117 minutes. Drama