Film Forum

PAISÀ
Italy, 1946
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Starring Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Dots Johnson
Approx. 126 min. 35mm.

The story of Italy’s liberation, told in six episodes, traveling from the first Allied landing in Sicily to the battle of the Po Delta, PAISAN demonstrated that OPEN CITY had been no fluke. Conceived on a vaster scale, with a considerably higher budget, and international distribution from MGM, PAISAN is a national epic that still startles for its immediacy, its technical mastery, its unpredictable rhythms. Scenes of unbearable suspense on the streets of Florence alternate with lighter fare, such as the doctrinal scuffles between Italian monks and American chaplains in Romagna. Stitched together like a newsreel (and skillfully edited to blend in stock footage and suggest off-screen pyrotechnics with creative sound effects), PAISAN became a worldwide sensation, an intellectual action film that pictured recent history with an unprecedented heft and scope. The film became a lodestar for filmmakers from Gillo Pontecorvo to Martin Scorsese, with the latter remarking, “The result... is still startling: it’s like seeing reality itself unfolding before your eyes.”

35mm print courtesy Cinecittà.