Paisan Film Still
  • Italy, Estonia
  • 1946
  • 120 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.33:1
  • English, German, Italian
  •  
  • Spine #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 & CreditsOpen

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

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 CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Paisan: More Real Than Real

By Colin MacCabeJanuary 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 Read more »


Clippings

The Trilogy According to John Bailey

June 07, 2010

We’ve drawn your attention before to award-winning DP John Bailey’s informative, entertaining blog on the American Society of Cinematographers website, in particular his in-depth introduction Read more »


Press Notes

Press Notes: Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy

February 01, 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 Read more »