#498: Paisan
1946, 120 minutes, Black and White, 1.33:1
Language: English, German, Italian
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
[A note on spoilers: This post contains ‘em. But, they will only be spoilers for someone coming into this film completely cold, with no foreknowledge of its contents whatsoever. Most of what I mentioned had already been revealed to me by other sources, such as essays and reviews, where it was pretty much accepted that these key scenes are already common knowledge.]
As much as I enjoyed Rome Open City, I enjoyed Paisan several times more. The two hours spent watching this film passed very quickly. Each episode grabbed my attention, held me spellbound throughout, and left me wanting for more as I was swept into the next. As the first episode ended I was reminded how much I like short stories, and why. A good short story can contain so much more than is shown or said.
Like Rome Open City, this movie was one that I owned another copy of, an old VHS tape of poor quality. Also, as with Rome Open City, I had already been spoiled by Criterion Collection quality and couldn’t force myself to watch it, hoping that some day Criterion would come through. I think Paisan was the last VHS tape I ever bought. I put it in my combo DVD/VHS player and watched a couple of minutes of it before abandoning it. That had to have been five or six years ago. The tape remained in the player ever since, and that’s where it still was when I wanted to compare the visual quality of the tape and the new Criterion DVD. The same as with Rome Open City, the difference between the old release and the Criterion is night and day. The opening sequence between the two versions was even different. Scanning forward in the tape, I noticed that the transition between the first and second episodes was also different on the tape, using an overlay of a map to show the Allied progress up the Italian peninsula. I suspect it is the same between all the episodes. The subtitles are also vastly improved in the new DVD. Criterion certainly made the wait worthwhile, again.
As much as I delighted in watching Paisan for the first time, I must admit that I don’t know if it is something I would have watched had I come across the movie by chance some lazy Sunday spent channel surfing on the television, especially if I caught it at the opening of the first episode. With no context, whether that of the importance of the movie, the historical impact of the film, or the conditions under which it was made, if I had happened across it at the point where the soldiers are advancing on the Sicilian village I would have discounted it as a cheesy war movie. The American soldiers were stiff, amateurish, and over-acted. But with an understanding of the context and a desire to see this film, those little quirks are not only easily overlooked, but make the movie that much more appealing. Those soldiers were, in reality, not actors at all! There were several points in the film where the post-dubbing of dialogue was noticeably out of synch with the actors’ mouths, even the sound quality varying drastically. These imperfections somehow enhance the pleasure of watching this film.
Each episode contained something endearing. I really don’t know if could begin to rank them because there is something in each one of them that could compel me to call it my favorite.
Episode One, “Sicily,” held me by my hopes that the Americans and Italians would be able to communicate and get through the mistrust they instinctively held for one another. The Americans didn’t trust the Italians because they were entering unfamiliar territory not knowing what awaited them or who they could trust. The Italians just saw another invading force, one that they had no reason to expect these soldiers would be any different than the Germans. There was a sense of trust being built between Joe and Carmela before Joe’s mistake caused his death. In the end there was not only no understanding achieved, but the events were completely misunderstood, reinforcing the mistrust. The American soldiers assumed Carmela had killed their comrade in order to flee, when in fact she did all she could to save him and was ultimately killed for it herself. It was the ending of that episode where I thought to myself, Wow, I really like short stories. There was just so much packed into that twenty minutes of film that really sent my mind racing.
I liked the interaction between the MP, Joe, and the Neapolitan boy Pasquale in Episode Two, “Naples.” The acting was much better done in this episode. Both Joe and Pasquale were great. I got a kick out of them sitting atop the pile of rubble and Joe playacting out his journey home, hero’s welcome, and sad realization that he didn’t want to go home because it was actually worse for him than being at war. Eventually he would see that the slums of Naples were much worse than anything he had experienced. It was a bit of a sad realization, but again, like a good short story, there was much to ponder afterwards.
“Rome” is the setting for Episode Three, where the drunken GI, Fred, is picked up by a hooker. He recalls how jubilant the crowds were when he rolled into Rome with the U.S. Army and how much promise the liberation held. He lamented, six months later, how all that cheer and hope had evaporated. He told of a beautiful young woman named Francesca he met on the first day, but had lost contact with her. The hooker realizes that she is the young woman he is talking about, only now recognizing Fred though he had yet to recognize her. Her realization raises within her hopes that he could be her Prince Charming to take her from the horrible world she’s trapped in. Even though she leaves him the address where he can find her the next day, he only throws the address away. I think it is because he has become jaded and doesn’t care or see the point, believing that any love he could have with the woman would fade away just as had the jubilation when he had first arrived in Rome.
What I enjoyed most about Episode Four, “Florence,” was the city itself. I fell in love with the city the first time I visited it and was happy to see some familiar locations. It was surreal, however, to see the starkness of the city during the war, the Uffizi square empty of all tourists and color. It amazed me to think, in spite of all the destruction and devastation of war, how much did survive. I also thought how the realism achieved of making the film when it was, while it was still bearing the effects of war, could never be effectively recreated at any time after that. Rossellini had accomplished something unique by making the film when he did, capturing a sense of realism that could never be adequately recreated.
I suppose that maybe Episode Five, “The Monastery,” probably does hold an edge as my favorite if I ever were forced to make such a claim. I liked the genuine, sincere congeniality of the American Catholic chaplain, Captain Bill Martin, as he entered the monastery and marveled at how this building was hundreds of years older than the country he called home. It was the most lighthearted of all the episodes, I believe, in its humor and spirituality. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when it was learned by the monks that of the three visiting American military clergy one was Protestant and another Jewish. It was humorous how quickly the word spread and how distraught the monks were about the situation. The mutual charity was refreshing, too. The monks were going to be generous with what little provisions they had, and the Americans, even without knowing how low supplies were, gave all their canned goods to the monks without a second thought. It made me think again of the interview with the priest on the Rome Open City disc where Rossellini claimed to not believe in anything. Here, he portrays religion in what appears to me to be quite a positive light.
The final episode, “The Po Valley,” was tense and intriguing, showing collaboration between Italian partisans and American and British soldiers fighting against the Germans. In the end, their fates are sealed together. The movie ends rather abruptly, but appropriately, with a succinct explanation that the events took place in December and by spring the war was over.
Each episode is enjoyable in its own right, and sewn together as a patchwork, the whole product was a wonderful work of cinema. This movie certainly stands up strong under all the praise piled upon it.
When I was traveling Italy with U.S. Army veterans, several of them referred to the Italian campaign as the “forgotten war.” Initially, it was the prime campaign to “pierce the soft underbelly” of Germany. D-Day and the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, just days after American forces took possession of Rome, overshadowed the campaign in Italy though the fighting continued for nearly a year after. There are relatively few movies that depict the Italian campaign, and I don’t think any of them could represent it as well as Paisan does. For the movie to be filmed while the rubble was still piled high makes for a perfect time capsule. After waiting so many years to see this film, I was not disappointed, and I will surely, gladly, sit through it many times again.
The special features on this disc were not as many as on Rome Open City – there is no audio commentary for the movie – but they were very informative and enlightening. I most especially liked “Into the Future,” the video essay by Tag Gallagher. Gallagher’s voice was friendly, inviting, and gentle. It was like sitting down in the parlor over tea to listen to a dear great uncle warmly telling a tale of the past. It hit upon all three flims in the trilogy, but since I had just finished Paisan, it was the segment that seemed most relevant, though there were many revealing things, with wonderful use of visual aids, about all three. For Paisan, I appreciated the greater understanding of the evolution of communication throughout the movie, from almost complete lack of in the first episode to almost absolute in the last. It showed the counter-balance between the American and Italian elements of each episode, and had a wonderful segment demonstrating “shock” and “impulse” throughout. The essay doesn’t have chapters, so be careful not to skip back to the beginning when only intending to scan back a few seconds to pick up something illuminating enough to be repeated. A particularly fun bit of trivia was to be shown the first shot ever directed by Federico Fellini.
Overall, every aspect of the Paisan disc was satisfying and pleasurable. After watching it, I am eager to move on to Germany Year Zero.
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