Roberto Rossellini
Italian neorealist director known for Rome, Open City and Bergman films.
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Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He became a leading figure in Italian neorealist cinema, known for works like *Rome, Open City* (1945), *Paisan* (1946), and *Germany, Year Zero* (1948). He also gained fame for films featuring his then-wife Ingrid Bergman, including *Stromboli* (1950), *Europe '51* (1952), *Journey to Italy* (1954), *Fear* (1954), and *Joan of Arc at the Stake* (1954).
Rossellini was born in Rome to Elettra (née Bellan), a housewife from Rovigo, Veneto, and Angiolo Giuseppe "Peppino" Rossellini, a construction firm owner born in Rome to a family originally from Pisa, Tuscany. He grew up on Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had his first Roman hotel in 1922 when Fascism came to power in Italy. His father built Rome’s first modern cinema, the Corso, which opened in 1918 and gave young Rossellini unlimited free entry, leading him to frequent movies regularly from an early age. After his father died, he worked in film sound-making and took on various behind-the-scenes film jobs, gaining skills in each area. He had a younger brother, Renzo, who later composed music for many of his films. Though not personally religious, Rossellini was deeply interested in Christian values and Catholic ethics, which he felt were overlooked in a materialist world.
In 1937, Rossellini shot his first film, *Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune*, which may have never been released and is now lost. He then worked as an assistant director on Goffredo Alessandrini’s *Luciano Serra pilota*, one of Italy’s most successful early-20th-century films, and later on Francesco De Robertis’s 1940 film *Uomini sul Fondo*. His close friendship with Vittorio Mussolini, Benito Mussolini’s son, may have helped him get ahead of other apprentices. Some critics view the first part of his career as a series of trilogies. His first feature, *The White Ship* (1941), sponsored by the Navy Department’s audiovisual propaganda center, began his "Fascist Trilogy," followed by *A Pilot Returns* (1942) and *The Man with a Cross* (1943). During this time, he built relationships with Federico Fellini and Aldo Fabrizi. After the Fascist regime fell in 1943 and Rome was liberated in June 1944, Rossellini started preparing the anti-fascist *Rome, Open City* (1945), with Fellini helping on the script and Fabrizi playing the priest. Rossellini self-produced the film, starting shooting in January 1945, funding it mostly through credits and loans, and obtaining film stock on the black market. The film was an immediate success and is considered the first of his Neorealist Trilogy, followed by *Paisà* (1946), made with non-professional actors, and *Germany, Year Zero* (1948), financed by a French producer and shot in Berlin’s French sector. In Berlin, Rossellini again sought non-actors but couldn’t find a face he found interesting; he placed his camera in a town square, as he had for *Paisà*, but was surprised when no one came to watch. He explained in an interview that to truly create a character, a director must battle an actor, usually ending up giving in to the actor’s wishes. Since he didn’t want to waste energy on such battles, he only occasionally used professional actors. His success partly came from rewriting scripts based on non-professional actors’ feelings and backgrounds, showing regional accents, dialects, and costumes as they were in real life.
After the Neorealist Trilogy, Rossellini made two "Transitional films": *L'Amore* (1948) with Anna Magnani, and *La macchina ammazzacattivi* (1952), which explored cinema’s ability to portray reality and truth, recalling commedia dell’arte. In 1948, he received a letter from a famous foreign actress proposing a collaboration: "Dear Mr. Rossellini, I saw your films *Open City* and *Paisan*, and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only 'ti amo,' I am ready to come and make a film with you. Ingrid Bergman." This began a famous love story, with both at the peak of their careers. Their first collaboration was *Stromboli terra di Dio* (1950), filmed on the island of Stromboli, where the volcano erupted conveniently during shooting. The affair caused a major scandal, as both were married to others; the scandal grew when Bergman became pregnant with their son Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe ("Robin") Rossellini. They later had two more children, actress and model Isabella Rossellini and her twin Isotta Ingrid. They worked together on *Europa '51* (1952), *Siamo Donne* (1953), *Journey to Italy* (1954), *La paura* (1954), and *Giovanna d'Arco al rogo* (1954). In 1957, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Rossellini to India to make the documentary *India* and revitalize the struggling Indian Films Division. Though still married to Bergman, he had an affair with screenwriter Sonali Senroy Dasgupta, who was married to filmmaker Harisadhan Dasgupta, then helping develop vignettes for the film, given the climate of the 1950s.
- born
- 8 May 1906, Rome, Italy
- died
- 3 June 1977, age 71
- field
- Film director, screenwriter, producer
- nationality
- Italian
- known_for
- Italian neorealist cinema; films with Ingrid Bergman
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
Rossellini was born in Rome. His mother, Elettra (née Bellan), was a housewife born in Rovigo, Veneto, and his father, Angiolo Giuseppe "Peppino" Rossellini, who owned a construction firm, was born in Rome from a family originally from Pisa, Tuscany. He lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had his first Roman hotel in 1922. Rossellini's father built the first modern cinema in Rome, the Corso, granting his son an unlimited free pass; the cinema opened in 1918, and the young Rossellini started frequenting the cinema regularly at an early age. When his father died, he worked in film sound-making and for a certain time experienced all the ancillary jobs related to the creation of a film. Rossellini had a younger brother, Renzo, who later scored many of his films. Although he was not personally religious, he had a strong interest in Christian values in the contemporary world. In 1937, Rossellini shot his first film, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, which was possibly unreleased and later lost. His first feature film, The White Ship (1941), was sponsored by the audiovisual propaganda centre of Navy Department and is the first work in Rossellini's "Fascist Trilogy", together with A Pilot Returns (1942) and The Man with a Cross (1943). During this period he developed relationships with Federico Fellini and Aldo Fabrizi. The Fascist regime collapsed in 1943, and two months after the liberation of Rome (4 June 1944), Rossellini began preparing the anti-fascist Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City, 1945), with Fellini assisting on the script. Fabrizi played the role of the priest, while Rossellini self-produced, filming commencing in January 1945. Most of the money came from credits and loans, and film had to be found on the black market. This dramatic film was an immediate success. It has been called the first film of the Neorealist Trilogy, the second title of which was Paisà (1946), produced with non-professional actors, and the third, Germany, Year Zero (1948), was sponsored by a French producer and filmed in Berlin's French sector. In 1948, Rossellini received a letter from Ingrid Bergman proposing a collaboration: "Dear Mr. Rossellini, I saw your films Open City and Paisan, and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only 'ti amo,' I am ready to come and make a film with you." Their first collaboration was Stromboli terra di Dio (1950). This affair caused a great scandal (Bergman and Rossellini were married to other people); the scandal intensified when Bergman became pregnant with Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe ("Robin") Rossellini. Rossellini and Bergman had two more children, Isabella Rossellini and her twin, Isotta Ingrid. In 1957, Jawaharlal Nehru invited him to India to make the documentary India. Though married to Bergman, he had an affair with Sonali Senroy Dasgupta, a screenwriter, herself married to local filmmaker Harisadhan Dasgupta. Nehru had to ask Rossellini to leave. Soon after, Bergman and Rossellini separated. Rossellini eloped with Dasgupta in 1957 when she was 27. He adopted her young son Arjun, renamed Gil Rossellini (23 October 1956 – 3 October 2008). Rossellini and Dasgupta had a daughter together, Raffaella Rossellini (born 1958). In 1973, Rossellini left Dasgupta for producer Silvia D'Amico Bendicò, but he remained married to Dasgupta until his death of a heart attack at age 71 in 1977.
Reader's Guide
Rossellini's significance lies in his foundational role in Italian neorealism. As he declared in an interview: "in order to really create the character that one has in mind, it is necessary for the director to engage in a battle with his actor which usually ends with submitting to the actor's wish. Since I do not have the desire to waste my energy in a battle like this, I only use professional actors occasionally." One of the reasons for success is supposed to be Rossellini's rewriting of the scripts according to the non-professional actors' feelings and histories. Regional accent, dialect and costumes were shown in the film as they were in real life. His Neorealist Trilogy—Rome, Open City (1945), Paisà (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948)—are landmark films. After his Neorealist Trilogy, Rossellini produced two films now classified as the 'Transitional films': L'Amore (1948) (with Anna Magnani) and La macchina ammazzacattivi (1952). His films with Ingrid Bergman—Stromboli (1950), Europe '51 (1952), Siamo Donne (1953), Journey to Italy (1954), La paura (1954) and Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (1954)—were commercially unsuccessful, though Journey to Italy is well regarded in some quarters. He was an acknowledged master for the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma in general and André Bazin, François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard in particular. Truffaut noted in his 1963 essay, Roberto Rossellini Prefers Real Life, that Rossellini's influence among the directors who became part of the nouvelle vague was so great that he was in every sense "the father of the French New Wave". In 1971, Rice University in Houston, Texas, invited Rossellini to help establish a Media Center, where in 1970 he had begun planning a film on science with Rice professor Donald D. Clayton. They worked daily for two weeks in Rome in summer 1970, but financing was insufficient for filming to begin. In 1973, he was invited to teach at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he taught a one-semester course titled "The Essential Image." Rossellini's final project was the documentary Beaubourg, filmed in 1977 and first premiered in 1983. Along with Albert Einstein, Rossellini was one of the sponsors of the Peoples' World Convention (PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place in 1950–51 at Palais Electoral, Geneva, Switzerland.
Did You Know?
- Rossellini's father built the first modern cinema in Rome, the Corso, which opened in 1918 and gave young Rossellini an unlimited free pass.
- Ingrid Bergman's first letter to Rossellini began: 'Dear Mr. Rossellini, I saw your films Open City and Paisan, and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well... I am ready to come and make a film with you.'
- During filming of Stromboli (1950), the volcano on the island of Stromboli quite conveniently erupted.
- Rossellini was one of the sponsors of the Peoples' World Convention (PWC) in 1950–51, alongside Albert Einstein.
- His final project was the documentary Beaubourg, filmed in 1977 and first premiered in 1983.
Gallery
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Roberto Rossellini?
Roberto Rossellini (1906–1977) was an Italian filmmaker who worked as a director, screenwriter, and producer. He is most closely associated with the Italian neorealist movement of the 1940s and 1950s.
What are Roberto Rossellini's most famous films?
His neorealist masterpieces include Rome, Open City, Paisan, and Germany, Year Zero. He is equally remembered for directing Ingrid Bergman in titles like Stromboli, Europe '51, and Journey to Italy.
What is the connection between Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman?
The two were married, and Rossellini cast Bergman in a series of personal, introspective films during the early 1950s. Their partnership produced works such as Fear, Joan of Arc at the Stake, and Journey to Italy.
How did Rossellini shape Italian neorealism?
He helped define the movement by placing ordinary postwar Italian life at the center of his narratives and shooting in real locations rather than studios. Films like Rome, Open City and Germany, Year Zero became reference points for the style.
When and where did Roberto Rossellini die?
Rossellini died on 3 June 1977, at the age of 71. He had remained active in filmmaking and production up until his passing.
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