Before Watching “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy”
I think I am at the right place and the right time to begin this little endeavor of watching and writing about each of the Criterion Collection releases. I don’t think it is mere coincidence that I start now. It’s something I think I may have been considering subconsciously for a couple of years, ever since I started keeping a journal of the movies I’ve watched. I think it was the hype and anticipation of Criterion’s 500th spine number and the release of “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy” that broke the idea loose from my subconscious and compelled me to finally take my trifle to the blogosphere.
Milestones are fun. The Criterion Collection just marked a significant milestone with the issuance of their 500th spine number and “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy” is a hell of a great way to mark it! No matter what the spine number, this release is widely hailed and enormously appreciated by movie lovers the whole world over (as long as they have the ability to play Region 1 DVDs anyway).
So, instead of starting at number one, I will start with number five hundred. Why not? Hell, I’ve been waiting for Criterion to bring us two of these three movies for years.
Back Story:
Way back when, in 2003, I was going to Italy for the first time. Before going, I wanted to learn as much Italian as I could. In addition to books, magazines, and CDs, I turned to Italian film to help immerse myself in the language as part of the learning process. The Criterion Collection offered the widest selection of Italian films and I snapped up as many titles as I could as quickly as I could. Watching the movies was a lot of fun, it did help me learn the language, and I was exposed to films I never would have been otherwise.
My reason for going to Italy was to experience one of the most fulfilling and enriching educational field trips I could have ever imagined. I had befriended a veteran of the U.S. Army (who I will refer to as “the Old Man,” but with great affection, mind you) whose division fought their way up the Italian peninsula in the last months of World War II. Every three years he goes on a reunion tour that travels the route taken in 1945 and I had been invited to join him.
The Old Man had told me his war stories before. He is passionate about those defining moments of his life and is always engaging when he talks of them. I never tired of hearing him talk about it, but his stories took on a much greater level of meaning when told in the surroundings where they happened. We visited battle sites and villages liberated by the Allied Forces.
I’ll never forget the tingle that raced down my spine when one of the Old Man’s comrades-in-arms lifted his shirt to show a roadmap of scars across his chest and belly from a decades-old injury he sustained in battle. After a surprise attack on a German fortification, he picked up a harmonica that a German soldier had left behind, and put it in his chest pocket. During a counter-attack, a bullet that would otherwise have pierced his heart was deflected by the harmonica and ripped through his abdomen. He took cover in a foxhole. It would be an impressive story any time, but what made it so surreal was that he was standing on the very spot he received the injury nearly sixty years earlier. The hillside was still pockmarked with foxholes that had been dug during the war. As he told this story, he re-enacted it and climbed down into the exact same foxhole he had taken cover in when the wound was fresh.
Hearing the stories and seeing the places of battle enthralled me with the history of it all. Some of the Old Man’s fellow veterans had written their memoirs. He was fond of saying that every soldier’s war was only three feet wide and that even two men going side-by-side into the same battle would have unique and personal stories of the event. The Old Man wanted to record in writing his own memories so that future generations of his family would never have to wonder what it was he did. I set out to help him with that task.
I was told of two movies I must watch. One was Rome Open City and the other was Paisan. It wasn’t without some effort that I was able to find a DVD titled Open City and a VHS copy of Paisan. I tried to watch them, but I had been spoiled by the Criterion Collection films I had already watched. I just couldn’t bear to watch either of these all the way through, thinking how wonderful it would be if Criterion Collection would some day present both of these movies. Over five years later, Criterion came through!
I was ecstatic when I learned of Criterion’s release of “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy.” Though funds were very tight, I just had to have the set as soon as it was released! I wasn’t the only one to think that, however, as that Tuesday afternoon I checked the stores downtown only to find I was too late. They were all sold out. That Friday, I called around to some other, more distant stores, disappointed to learn that they too were out. I couldn’t bear going to the ‘burbs, so I had resigned myself to the possibility it would be some time before I was able to acquire a copy of my own, which sucked because I had already designated that weekend for hunkering down and watching all three movies in the trilogy and their supplements.
Just as I had given up on having the set any time soon, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an e-mail with a coupon for thirty percent off any single item online purchase, good for only three days. The coupon, coupled with an online discount, reduced the price by forty percent. Even though I wouldn’t have it for the weekend, I thought I may as well get it for a great deal and have it delivered to my door in time for the following weekend – better late than never. I placed the order right away and early the following week I got my package. (Don’t worry though. That weekend didn’t go to waste. In my searches for the “War Trilogy,” I found a store selling used DVDs and found a copy of The Human Condition, that was in great condition, for a steal. But that’s story that will just have to wait for another day.)
The Box Set:
I noticed that Criterion has done something a bit contrived in order for “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy” to bear that pretty, round number, 500, on its spine. Up until now, for any box set with its own individual number (that didn’t have titles released earlier, such as the case with “The Adventures of Antoine Doines”), it is the box bearing the first number and the movies contained within numbered successively afterwards. (“Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara,” for example, is numbered 392 and the films are numbered 393 through 395.) For the Rossellini set, however, the box was given the highest number, with the three movie numbers inside being lower. So, if they had kept with precedent, the box would have been numbered 497 and Germany Year Zero would have borne that pretty milestone “500.” I don’t think it’s a matter of any great significance, but just noticed the quirk in their numbering method for this release. Regardless, the purpose is well served, and I do think it’s cool that this long-awaited and much-ballyhooed release is a significant milestone for Criterion.
It’s the content on the discs that matter most, of course, but I also enjoy when it is nicely packaged and well done. The movies are contained in a cardboard slipcase, each in their own cardboard book-style cover. Included is a booklet containing four essays, one addressing the entire trilogy, and one dedicated to each of the movies. There are stills from the movies adorning the inside and outside of the slip case, the DVD cases, and the booklet.
All in all, it is a beautiful presentation for three films that have long awaited the attention deserved of them, and for them to finally be released, packaged together, in the highest quality possible, including an abundance of supplemental and special features. I expect that the content of the DVDs will show that, in this case especially, you can sometimes judge a book by its cover.
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