Roberto Rossellini - Director´s Series - Collector´s Edition

Two Rare Films from The Father of Italian Neorealism

Roberto Rossellini shot his first film at the invitation of Vittorio Mussolini, son of the Italian dictator. Even his early films had a profound effect: Rossellini was credited with launching the Italian Neorealism movement that used non-actors and real locations to showcase the plight of working-class Italians.

Legendary French directors including Andre Bazin, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard also called him the godfather of the French New Wave style. After a scandalous affair with the great actress Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini married her and directed her in several films. When the marriage ended, Rossellini continued to make headlines with his personal life, but ultimately restored his reputation with biographical films shot almost exclusively for TV.

Disc 1:
Dov´e La Liberta...? (Where Is Freedom?)

Rossellini´s darkly comic satire showcases the great Italian comic Toto as a barber who is imprisoned for murdering his wife´s suspected lover. After twenty years, Salvatore leaves the prison walls to find the world he once knew gone. His wife is dead, he encounters one deceitful person after another, and his family and friends are even more disloyal. Salvatore realizes he has no choice but to find a way back to prison where he feels certain he will be happier.

Disc 2:
Era Notte A Roma (Escape By Night)

In this emotional war drama set in Nazi-occupied Rome, a beautiful bootlegger (Giovanna Ralli) gives sanctuary to three escaped POWs - an American pilot, a Russian sergeant and a British major. By taking them in, she tragically jeopardizes the safety of her Communist lover while the confinement of the trapped prisoners brings their uneasy alliance to a boiling point, symbolizing the chaos of the world around them. The film is a fascinating blend of Rossellini´s early Neorealist films and the more contemplative approach of his later works.

Upplagd i sortimentet: 4 December, 2008