Six Degrees
These are the facts. The facts of war. Not just for one, but for all.
In Paisan, Rossellini offers us six 'episodes'; six stories of war to make a whole, a comprehensive story of the Second World War. As we travel around Italy we meet a whole host of characters: soldiers, citizens, men and women, young and old, Italians, Americans, Germans, good, bad, or shades of grey in between.
These episodes mostly end in disappointment, heartache or death. Just as we are given a little faith in mankind, a glimpse of hope, it is snatched away as we are confronted with the brutal reality of war. This is powerful cinema.
The second in Rossellini's War Trilogy, Paisan is certainly an important film of its time. A neorealist film which is satisfied to sit back and tell the stories of ordinary people living in war-torn Italy in 1944. It demands your participation and engages the audience from start to finish. Watch this film and prepare to travel through the country, share the grief of the characters as they lose what is most important, and withdraw in horror as you see what war can do to people.
Rossellini's commentary of the war speaks through with one resounding message: war is not natural, war should not be. War is inexplicable and makes people behave in ways that they should not. War forces people to act in an unfamiliar and horrifying environment, and it reverberates through everyone.
In using the episodic structure, we gain a comprehensive overview of the war and the lives of people in it. There are no heroes, we meet only normal people who are fighting their own battles. We experience what life is like for them, through their eyes. This insight is not only invaluable, but relevant; the film explores universal truths, and how people act in unfamiliar and uncomfortable circumstances. For us to understand our history we need to get to know these people. And we can meet them here.
No comments:
Post a Comment