Paisan Film Still

Paisan

Roberto Rossellini

Italy, Estonia

1946

120 minutes

Black and White

1.33:1

English, German, Italian

498

Synopsis

Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to his breakout Rome Open City was the ambitious, enormously moving Paisan (Paisà), which consists of six episodes set during the liberation of Italy at the end of World War II, and taking place across the country, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. With its documentary-like visuals and its intermingled cast of actors and nonprofessionals, Italians and their American liberators, this look at the struggles of different cultures to communicate and of people to live their everyday lives in extreme circumstances is equal parts charming sentiment and vivid reality. A long-missing treasure of Italian cinema, Paisan is available here for the first time in its full original release version.

Cast

CarmelaCarmela Sazio
Joe (first episode)Robert Van Loon
Joe (second episode)Dots M. Johnson
FrancescaMaria Michi
FredGar Moore
HarrietHarriet White
MassimoRenzo Avanzo
Captain Bill MartinBill Tubbs
The friar guardianFather Vincenzo Carrella
DaleDale Edmonds

Credits

DirectorRoberto Rossellini
ProducerRoberto Rossellini
with the participation ofRod E. Geiger
ScreenplaySergio Amidei, Klaus Mann, Federico Fellini, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes and Roberto Rossellini
CinematographyOtello Martelli
SoundOvidio Del Grande
MusicRenzo Rossellini
EditingEraldo Da Roma
Assistant directorsMassimo Mida and Federico Fellini

Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963
  • New video interview with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà
  • Excerpts from rarely seen videotaped discussions Rossellini had in 1970 with faculty and students at Rice University about his craft
  • Into the Future, a new visual essay about the War Trilogy by film scholar Tag Gallagher
  • New and improved English subtitle translations

From the Current

Press Notes: Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy

Feb 1, 2010

The critics agree that Criterion’s release of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy, featuring major restorations of the unassailable landmarks of Italian cinema Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero, is something of a landmark . . .

Paisan: More Real Than Real

by Colin MacCabe Jan 26, 2010

Roberto Rossellini’s second postwar film was released in the United States as Paisan, and one can understand why the distributors wanted to use a title familiar to many Americans as meaning “friend” . . .

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Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy Criterion DVD Add to Cart

26 Jan 2010

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

SRP: $79.95

Criterion Store price

$63.96