“You simply don’t speak Italian in a hurry,” says an American soldier in the first of six stories of “Paisan.” It’s a funny line within my fast talking Italian family, but “Paisan” is Roberto Rossellini’s second film in his war trilogy and portrait of Italian life during World War II, and it achieves its “neorealistic” slice of life by taking its time across Italian culture and lifestyles.
Like “Rome, Open City” before it, this film is neorealistic because of its pessimistic tone and grave images of poverty and troubled living during wartime. Rossellini may already be going against the tendencies of his first film to be real through non-actors, on-location filming and straight forward stories, because “Paisan” is surprisingly Hollywood. It’s complete with American actors, swelling scores and even a few action heavy scenarios. And yet each ends anti-climatically if not downright sad.
In one story, the American MP befriending a poor, parentless Italian boy turns away when he witnesses just how bad the boy’s conditions are. In another, two heros will spend their entire time negotiating past blockades and barriers only to end up dead just short of the finish line. And in a third, a soldier will forever lose the love of his life when he fails to recognize her, forced into prostitution after the war has taken everything.
Amid it all though is a sense of fortitude, excitement and determination. We see courtesy in homeowners opening themselves to danger at the hands of the Germans, we see American soldiers admiring the architecture of buildings older than their country, and we see spirituality that helps monks get through the horrors and misfortune of war. There’s courtesy, hospitality and a pervasive sense of culture coursing through “Paisan’s” veins, and that’s what makes it such a powerful statement.
Not all war films take up the helm this easily. When compared to American films, there’s a difference between jingoism and culture, and “Paisan” knows what it is to call Italy home, for better or worse.