Gilbert Adair introduces two key films directed by Roberto Rossellini.
Paisa'
Six separate stories are told against a common background of the Italian liberation showing the effects on both the civilians and the advancing American forces during the last months of the Second World War.
Screenplay by SERGIO AMIDEI.
ROBERTO ROSSELLINI.
MARCELLO PAGLIERO. FEDERICO FELLINI and ALFRED HAYES
(In Italian with English subtitles. Black and white) and at 12.30am
Germany Year Zero
Starring Edmund Meschke. Filmed in the ruins of Berlin in 1947, this powerful film documents the nadir of German society. Saddled with a bedridden father and a brother in hiding, 12-year-old Edmund becomes the family's breadwinner, scavenging what he can on the black market. New friends lead him to desperate measures.
Screenplay by ROBERTO ROSSELLINI CARLO LIZZANI and MAX COLPET
(In German with English subtitles. Black and white)
* PROFILE ON ROBERTO ROSSELLINI : page 19