Paisan (1946) dir. Roberto Rossellini

Rossellini’s realism isn’t any less contrived or manipulative than classical Hollywood styles.  ’Simplicity,’ rather than ‘realism’ might be a more accurate word in this sense.  The film still lies, ’24 frames a second.’

But its lie is convincing; Paisan feels much more natural and more ‘real’ than a different war film might have been.  We spend our viewing time thinking about the real Italians and Americans, without being distracted from the on-screen drama.

A lot of Italian realism is very boring to me.  Perhaps the style requires a priority of plotted excitement for me to stay awake.  Paisan certainly kept me engaged.  I had planned to watch the 6 different episodic stories in different sittings, but I ended up staying through the whole DVD.

Like with Rossellini’s similarly themed Rome, Open City, Federico Fellini assisted with the writing of Paisan, getting credit for the monastery scene.