Rome, Open City

74Worth an evening.

Shot in the ruins, and I will not hand it to a kid as an adventure.

The review

Rossellini shot this in the ruins, and it is not a studio war picture with a tidy finish. Rome is under the Germans. A priest helps the resistance. A woman is part of it. The Gestapo is not a costume. There is torture. I am not going to describe it, and I did not feel clever for having sat through the knowledge of it.

Older teens, and only with an adult who will not treat the city as a dare. The film does not pretend Rome was only brave, which is the part I trust. People fail. The priest's help is still a real act. If you want a flag and a last reel that tidies the dead, pick another night. I was tired in a way the big war hits never made me.

Journal

Keep Rome, Open City in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 74. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household is the thin one.

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Master and Commander

81 instead of 74

Master and Commander is still a war film, and it scores 81 instead of 74. What you gain is household: The crew is the household.

The eight

7
Industry
The priest's help is the work, and the occupation is trying to stop it.
5
Household
A woman is in the fight as a person, not as a speech about women.
8
Piety
A priest helps the resistance when staying quiet would have been safer.
9
Courage
Priest and woman keep at it with the Gestapo already in the city.
9
Republic
What they owe is neighbors under occupation, not the army in the street.
7
Temperance
It refuses to play as an adventure, so the thrill is not the product.
8
Truth
Shot in the ruins, and it admits the city was not only brave.
6
Stewardship
What the camera leaves is the ruins, not a square rebuilt for the end.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Rome, Open City · 74IMDb

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Film · Paramount · 2016

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Arrival

74Worth an evening.

Understanding is the work. She says yes to a child she will lose. That yes is the film.

The review

Louise's profession is the unfashionable one: sit with a sentence until it means what the speaker meant, not what you feared. The generals want a weapon. The film thinks a grammar is more dangerous and more useful than a weapon, because a grammar changes what you are able to choose. When she sees the whole of her life with her daughter, including the end, she does not flinch into a safer timeline.

Adults, and teenagers who can be quiet. This is one of the few popular films of the decade that treats knowledge as a moral act. Watch it when the house is tempted to answer before it has understood.