Italian history has played a huge role in the direction of its cinema. The Italian story is a turbulent one and is reflected in its art. "Open City," filmed just after World War II, expresses the desolation and harsh reality of war and the open wounds it leaves behind. It marked a strengthening of the burgeoning neo-realist movement in Italy, but while the film is officially classified as neo-realism, it has many qualities that make it less harsh than other, more sterile movies of the same genre. The viewer is pulled into the story and made to feel emotional about the characters, thanks to Rossellini's effective use of dramatic music and wide-eyed children. What we are left with at the end of what at first glance appears to be a very bleak movie is the hope, as the children walk off into the city, that their future world will be brighter than the one into which they were born.
In one scene, Don Pietro, the priest, stands in front of two statues, one of a nude woman and the other of Jesus. The statues are facing one another and Don Pietro turns them in opposite directions. It is both comic and symbolic of the divisions between believers and non-believers, between the Church and the Fascists, that plagued wartime Rome. The statues represent the two extremes that are suddenly face to face in a confused, chaotic world. Don Pietro, the type of person who likes to protect those he cares about, futilely attempts to shield Jesus from the nakedness of the other statue, just as he tries to protect his friends from the Gestapo. It is moments like these that make Rossellini's masterpiece more than documentary-style realism. As all great films do, it transcends genre.
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