Roberto Rossellini once said: "I don't intend to solve the problems of the world, because I am a member of the world, I just want to express the world." The first time I saw this sentence, I thought, what is the world he wants to express? How does he express it? How to express it to be accepted by the public?
Today marks the 114th anniversary of Rossellini's birth, and I, as a loyal fan of his films, take this special time to talk to you about my favorite filmmaker, Robert Rossellini, and his black-and-white films.
Robert Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini (Born 8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was a famous Italian director, screenwriter and filmmaker, and a master of Italian neorealist cinema.
This article attempts to take Rossellini's era, marriage and works as an example, as far as possible to objectively analyze the theoretical basis and emotional tendency of the "neorealist film" trend of thought popular in Italy in the last century, and if there is any impropriety or one-sidedness, Jingxi corrects it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > there is a kind of filmmaker who belongs to the history of cinema</h1>
"There is a kind of filmmaker who belongs to the history of cinema." This is what insiders say about Robert Rossellini, and it seems that his symbolic significance as a master of Italian neorealist cinema is much higher than the significance of the work, which may be related to Ingrid Bergman's extramarital affair, which will be highlighted in part IV.
The main reason roberto Rossellini received such a review was his 1945 film Rome, the Undefended City.
Rome, an undefended city
Stepping out of the studio, he aimed the camera at the ruined city behind the war: a mother, a child, a guerrilla, a priest, and these four representative characters depicted the story of the fierce struggle between the people of Rome and the German army, and the characters of each of the little people in the film were handled very realistically and fully, and after many years, I can still remember the pregnant women running in the rain of bullets and bullets.
Pregnant women running in a rain of bullets
Robert Rossellini used ultra-delicate and nuanced shots, coupled with long black and white shots, focusing on close-ups, without too much language, and filled the screen with the horrors of war and the despair of the people.
Running didn't keep her alive
When the new crown pneumonia was raging in Italy, the Italian Army Chief of Staff Salvador Le Farina himself tested positive for the virus, the number of deaths in Italy soared by 57%, and the case fatality rate was as high as 4.96%, some netizens used this movie as an analogy to the Italian form, which is obviously very irrational and inhumane.
As the pioneering work of neorealist cinema, "Rome, The Undefended City" fundamentally changed the creative thinking of Italian cinema, making Robert Rossellini himself famous and becoming a well-deserved pioneer and founder of Italian neorealism.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the power of emotion and ruins of historical tragedy that led him to become a generation of giants</h1>
Fellini has had a fondness for circus and clowns since he was a child, and for this reason he has been away from home for a while, and this childhood yearning has always run through the tone of Fellini's films.
Many of the films that followed continued this style: a personal style that combined poetry and reality, criticism and humanistic care, contrary to the realistic style of Italian neorealism, and constantly guided the spiritual process of post-war Italy.
Another masterpiece that follows Rome, the Undefended City is the ambitious and extremely moving War, a six-chapter film set during the liberation of Italy at the end of World War II, and takes place across Italy, from Sicily to the northern part of the Po River Valley. With documentary-like visual effects, actors and amateurs, Italians and their American liberators mingling, the film focuses on the communication between different cultures, depicts stories of people struggling to survive in extreme environments, has both moving emotions and vivid reality, and is a long-lost treasure in Italian cinema.
Stills from the flames of war
Deal with the kids
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > ultimately pursue not beautiful movies, but useful movies</h1>
"Not wanting to be beautiful is a rejection of the gorgeous reproduction of the studio's aesthetic system; what is useful for shooting is to carry the camera to the street, to photograph the joys and sorrows on the faces of real people, to photograph the withering and depression of Italy in the shadow of war."
It is said that Rossellini in "German Zero" hardly uses the script and explicitly refuses to use the studio, costumes, makeup and professional actors, and the film is composed of 6 short stories
German Year Zero
Professor Xu Feng of the Central Academy of Drama, in a lecture on Rossellini's special screening at the Film Archive, said that Rossellini had three main ideas in the process of exploring Italian neorealist films:
The first is to try to restore people in the original form of people in the movie;
The second is to stay away from the stereotypes of the studio and pursue formal renewal;
The third is to constantly search for what the meaning of faith is.
These three aspects are what Roberto Rossellini said: "I do not intend to solve the problems of the world, because I am a member of the world myself, I only want to express the world." "What you want to express and the form of expression!"
Live-action filming of "Fire of War"
Live-action shooting, non-professional actors, liberating cameras, etc., in the 1940s and 1950s, when there was a lot of waste and the search for change, each of them was enough to make the film industry tremble and make emerging filmmakers cheer, so to speak, these people who are the best at criticism in the world put Rossellini in the position of pioneer of the new aesthetics of film.
In 1993, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 65th Academy Awards, the talented director is considered an insurmountable peak of European art cinema since the 1960s and one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. Together with Giuseppe de Santis, Luceno Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, he is known as the four main players of Italian neorealist cinema.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a lamentable marriage story</h1>
Some of Robert Rossellini's later works are mainly related to a woman named Ingrid Bergman.
Ingrid Bergman, a Swedish superstar who shined in Hollywood and the international film world, was the muse of the American film industry of that era, and she made every movie star-studded.
"Love on the Edge of the Volcano"
Deeply moved by rome, the undefended city, he wrote him a letter expressing his hope to work with him, one was a filmmaker, the other was an actor, naturally Rossellini was also moved, and later the two fell in love with 1950 when they collaborated on "Stromboli", Ingrid Bergman was pregnant with Rossellini's child, but at that time, she was also the wife of the Swedish doctor Peter Lindstrohn.
Ingrid Bergman
The relationship was spurned by the public, and Bergman soon divorced Lindstreng and married Rossellini.
But this marriage did not promote the development of Bergman's career, on the contrary, because of this, the whole world was hostile to her, and her image and career were greatly affected overnight, and she was almost completely removed from the old-fashioned Hollywood system.
Rossellini's "Ingrid Bergman Trilogy"
Ingrid Bergman, who came in fourth place as "the greatest actress of a hundred years," has too many shining points on her body. As she herself said: Only I can decide how I live, a beautiful, fearless Star of Liberty.
Prior to that, Ingrid Bergman was a well-known model in Swedish cinema.
Why is she a model worker?
In 1999, she was selected by the American Film Institute as the 4th greatest actress in a hundred years, including "Casablanca", "Beauty Plan", "Under the Gas Lamp", "Joan of Arc", etc., these films have now become classics in the history of cinema.
She has appeared in more than 50 films, 10 nominations, 14 awards, 3 Academy Awards, and even a rose, named "Ingrid Bergman", who loved and accomplished each other, although the relationship lasted only eight years.
The saddest thing is that Ingrid Bergman found out that she had cancer in November 1973, and in 1980 Bergman had two surgeries to cut off the left and right breasts, but the two surgeries did not eradicate the lesions, and the cancer had spread to other parts of the body.
At this point, she accepted the biggest challenge she had ever faced: playing The Prime Minister of Israel, Mrs. Meir, in a television series that was very difficult for Bergman, 65 years old, and her body was very weak, but she still persevered with amazing perseverance to finish the TV film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > there is no doubt that he is a giant and a symbol of a distant era</h1>
The "wrong way" in marriage is related to the historical changes at the peak of his creation on the one hand, and it is also closely related to his uninhibited artist personality.
Rossellini, Bergman and their three children
Most of the later films have a good reputation in the industry, such as "The Road" won the 29th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Award, "La Dolce Vita" let Fellini get the 34th Academy Awards Best Director nomination, "Eight and a Half Parts", "Love Myth", "Casanova" and other films were brilliant at the Academy Awards, but it was difficult to meet the audience, and the famous Robert Rossellini seemed to underestimate the impact of the times on individual development.
Not only the film circle, but even social people have formed a theoretical point of view in their consciousness, that is, the neomodernist film genre led by Roberto Rossellini was once brilliant, but because of its own life, it deviated from the mechanism and sociality, and it is not worthy of the respect and study of future generations, which is extremely one-sided.
Some people even suggest that only by exploring The film and aesthetic ideas of Robert Rossellini in the history of film and light can "possibly provide the healthiest, most solid and most balanced foundation for the future development and construction of film", it is not difficult to see after a little thought, this inference is too one-sided.
This may be a kind of fate and sorrow of the pioneers, and there are not many confidants who are offered to the altar early and can really get close to his works.
In short, in the history of world cinema, Although Robert Rossellini's voice is not the best, it is a real voice, his thinking ability and judgment, and the expression of film and beauty are beyond the reach of ordinary people, he has leaked the secrets of reality that other filmmakers are inconvenient to say, and if he is neglected because of this, he is willing to defend him.
"People's greatest success is to spend their lives in the way they like, if this sentence is correct, their life is undoubtedly successful, if they measure success by hard work, they can also be called winners in life." 」 From this point of view, Rossellini and Bergman as filmmakers deserve our respect.