Review of Open City (2008) by Vincent D — 28 May 2008

Seething with an anger that was based upon a deeply founded faith in Italian partisanship and Catholicism, Rome Open City is still the definition of the Italian Neo Realistic movement of the 40's. Still famously regarded for it's hand held camera usage, bare bones narrative and location shooting, the images throughout hold it's characters in high esteem in relation to their suffering of spirit, as they bare witness to the horror of occupation.

Every time I see it I feel the need for a justice in the world that can't be had, indeed it becomes one of the cinema's most devastating knife in the gut. The camera here records the past with an intimacy towards this most finite of human tragedies, where even hope seems to be taken away within it's final shot.