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Rome Open City | Paisan | Germany Year Zero
Licensor Information
Cinecitta
Directed by: Roberto Rossellini
Featuring: Aldo Fabrizi, Carmela Sazio, Edmund Moeschke, Anna Magnani, Robert Van Loon, Ernst Pittschau, Dots M. Johnson, Ingetraud Hinze, Maria Michi, Franz-Martin Krüger, Gar Moore, Erich Gühne, Harriet White, Renzo Avanzo, William Tubbs
Roberto Rossellini is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. And it was with his trilogy of films made during and after World War II—Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero—that he left his first transformative mark on cinema. With their stripped-down aesthetic, largely nonprofessional casts, and unorthodox approaches to storytelling, these intensely emotional works were international sensations and came to define the neorealist movement. Shot in battle-ravaged Italy and Germany, these three films are some of our most lasting, humane documents of devastated postwar Europe, containing universal images of both tragedy and hope.
Details by Film
Rome Open City
Year: 1945
Time: 103
Aspect Ratios
1.37:1
Audio
Italian Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Streaming Options
9398.
+3596
Stream
Rent
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Free
Paisan
Year: 1946
Time: 120
Aspect Ratios
1.33:1
Audio
Italian Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Streaming Options
30491.
+28209
Germany Year Zero
Year: 1948
Time: 71
Aspect Ratios
1.33:1
Audio
German Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Streaming Options
Rome Open City
This was Roberto Rossellini’s revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it. Though told with more melodramatic flair than the other films that would form this trilogy and starring some well-known actors—Aldo Fabrizi as a priest helping the partisan cause and Anna Magnani in her breakthrough role as the fiancée of a resistance member—Rome Open City (Roma città aperta) is a shockingly authentic experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II, with immediacy in every frame. Marking a watershed moment in Italian cinema, this galvanic work garnered awards around the globe and left the beginnings of a new film movement in its wake.
Paisan
Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to his breakout Rome Open City was the ambitious, enormously moving Paisan (Paisa), 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.
Germany Year Zero
The concluding chapter of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy is the most devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin, seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with his sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black-market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher. Germany Year Zero (Deutschland im Jahre Null) is a daring, gut-wrenching look at the consequences of fascism, for society and the individual.
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Discs:
DVD-9 (3 Discs)
Total: 3 Discs
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37:1
1.33:1
Audio Options:
Italian Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
German Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: , Booklet
- Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963
- Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963
- Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Peter Bondanella
- New video interview with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà
- The Italian release opening credits and voice-over prologue
- Once Upon a Time . . . “Rome Open City,” a 2006 documentary on the making of this historic film, featuring rare archival material and footage of Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, Ingrid Bergman, and many others
- Excerpts from rarely seen videotaped discussions Roberto Rossellini had in 1970 with faculty and students at Rice University about his craft
- Roberto Rossellini, a 2001 documentary by Carlos Lizzani, assistant director on Germany Year Zero, tracing Rossellini’s career through archival footage and interviews with family members and collaborators, with tributes by filmmakers François Truffaut and Martin Scorsese
- New video interviews with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà
- Into the Future, a new visual essay about the War Trilogy by film scholar Tag Gallagher
- Letters from the Front: Carlos Lizzani on “Germany Year Zero,” a podium discussion with Lizzani from the 1987 Tutto Rossellini conference
- Rossellini and the City, a new visual essay by film scholar Mark Shiel (Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City) on Rossellini’s use of the urban landscape in the war trilogy
- New video interview with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà
- New video interview with film critic and Rossellini friend Father Virgilio Fantuzzi, who discusses the filmmaker and the role of religion in Rome Open City
- Italian directors Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone) discussing the profound influence Rossellini’s films have had on them
- Roberto and Roswitha, a new illustrated essay by film scholar Thomas Meder on Rossellini’s relationship with his mistress Roswitha Schmidt
- A booklet featuring essays by James Quandt, Irene Bignardi, Colin MacCabe, and Jonathan Rosenbaum
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Rome Open City
Paisan
Germany Year Zero
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Notes on Restoration
Rome Open City
Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero are presented in their original aspect ratio of1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. The pictures have been slightly windowboxed to ensure that the maximum image is visible on all monitors.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
Paisan
Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero are presented in their original aspect ratio of1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. The pictures have been slightly windowboxed to ensure that the maximum image is visible on all monitors.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
Germany Year Zero
Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero are presented in their original aspect ratio of1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. The pictures have been slightly windowboxed to ensure that the maximum image is visible on all monitors.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
For decades, the available versions of these three films have been based on later-generation elements exhibiting both physical wear and tear and printed-in dirt and damage. These defects have often been attributed to the circumstances under which the films were made, especially Rome Open City, for which Rossellini resorted to using scavenged and mismatched film stocks. This new high-definition digital transfer of Rome Open City, created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, displays remarkable detail, sharpness, and image clarity.
The disastrous condition of Paisan’s materials has rendered the film virtually unavailable for decades, while Germany Year Zero has never been seen in the United States in this original version, with German opening titles and its complete and correct original-language soundtrack. These new high-definition digital transfers of both films were created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from 35 mm fine-grain master positives.
All three films required extensive digital restoration, using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, to remove, by hand, dirt, debris, stains, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker. Paisan alone required more than five hundred hours of MTI machine time for more than 265,000 individual manual fixes. Digital Vision’s DVNR system was also used for fine dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtracks for all three films were mastered at 24-bit from the corresponding 35mm optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.