Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. Set in Rome in 1944, the film follows a diverse group of characters coping under the Nazi occupation, and centers on a Resistance fighter trying to escape the city with the help of a Catholic priest. The title refers to Rome being declared an open city after 14 August 1943. I watched it on Max as I clear out my watchlist on that service.

trailer:

Senses of Cinema closes with this:

Rome, Open City is probably the most celebrated and representative example of neo-realism – perhaps because of its timing, but also because the power of its mythos and melodrama is given sanction by visual and geographical claims to “authenticity” (20). Its undimmed excitement is ironically achieved by techniques – strong plotting, dramatic episodes, fast cutting (21) – which aim for a visceral response from the viewer that would be displaced in Rossellini’s later work. But the film’s real importance was never in its “objective”, unmediated, “overwhelming truth”, its “moral outrage” or its “desire to testify” (22), but in its clashing modes of realism, genre and archetype, a liberating model that would influence filmmakers worldwide.

Slant Magazine opens a positive review by calling it a "legendary cinematic achievement". The Guardian describes it as a classic and a "Thrillingly real wartime drama" Criterion calls it a "revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it" and "a shockingly authentic experience". 100% of Rotten Tomatoes critics give it a positive review.