Directors: Ilaria de Laurentiis, Raffaele Brunetti, Andrea Paolo Massara
The great Italian neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini is best known for films such as Rome Open City (1945), Germany Year Zero (1948) and Journey To Italy (1954), the last starring his third wife, Ingrid Bergman. These movies are startling in their raw texture and storytelling power, coming across like fragile works-in-progress and yet they’re indisputably complete.
This new feature-length documentary doesn’t go over such neo-realist classics but instead explores the director’s life between 1956 and 1977, during which time some of his interests and priorities changed, while his attitudes hardened. He treasured the notion of freedom in film-making and didn’t take kindly to anyone telling him what to do, however much of the budget they may have provided.
His output during this period is less well-known but this movie makes a good case for giving it some attention. At one point his opinion is that ‘cinema is dead’ and he throws his energies into making TV series.
A caption at the outset makes clear that this film is essentially a selection of archive footage and photos combined with new voiceovers, the latter including commentaries by Rossellini’s collaborators and readings from his correspondence. There are clips from old interviews with Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman conducted in French, English and Italian, as well as archive location shots and extracts from home movies.
Overall it’s quite a rich blend but while you’re watching it some of the old black-and-white fragments look a bit ropey and random, having a dream-like effect. That’s not altogether inappropriate for the subject, though, a man with a rough-and-ready aesthetic who struggled to get some projects made and neglected his personal finances. Between image and sound there’s always something intriguing going on.
The film captures lesser known elements of the director’s story, such as his university teaching and his role as the president of the main competition jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977. It focuses on some close collaborations, not least with his son Renzo, who went on to become a director in his own right, and with an ex-wife, costume designer Marcella De Marchis.
If you’re not particularly invested in Rossellini, his unique creativity and colourful personal life, this entire enterprise might strike you as little more than the ruminations of a passionate but cranky and stubborn man.
The movie is showing as part of an Italian documentary mini-season. The screening at the 5th Cinecittà Italian Doc Fest includes a Q&A session with directors Ilaria de Laurentiis and Raffaele Brunetti.
Roberto Rossellini: Living Without a Script is screening at the 5th Cinecittà Italian Doc Fest from 4-5 July.
