Welcome to another Trilogies episode where Anders & Adam Holmes move (briefly) away from a Galaxy, Far, Far, Away to war torn Italy.

This episode we look at Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy. Roberto Rossellini (father of Isabella Rossellini, plus ex-father in law to Martin Scorsese) was one of the most prominent directors of Italian Neo-Realist Cinema. A film movement where its stories focused mainly on the poor and working class. Films about everyday life, poverty and oppression. Films shot on location and used primarily non-classically trained actors. Actors basically picked off the street essentially. The Bicycle Thieves is a perfect example of Italian Neo-Realism. The movement influenced French New Wave for example. Along with Rossellini, other Italian filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti popularised this very influential film movement.

Rossellini's Neo-Realist War Trilogy started with Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946) and concluded with Germany Year Zero (1948). Some of the first post-war films made in Italy and films that helped shape Italian Neo-Realism. Rome, Open City has a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is part of the Vatican's Important Films list. It's listed under the category Values.

We hope you like this episode and stay tuned for more Trilogies episode. We will be putting a pause on our Trilogies series and moving onto another series of episodes we have in the works: Fascism On Film. The first episode of that series will be on Andor & Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Stay tuned for that and for more episodes of The Movies And Me.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel, the famous location is featured briefly in one of the films.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen in the western The Outlaws, The films is a available to watch in America , parts of Scandinavia (e.g. Denmark, Finland) & the United Kingdom on Amazon and also Apple TV. You can read a review about the film here on Collider.

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Anders

Adam

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