From Rossellini to Rossellini: two overlapping processes of creation

Abstract

The Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini was, of all neorealist filmmakers, which brought to the fiction cinema the documentary aesthetics to its greatest radicality. In his “war trilogy”, consisting of Rome, open city, Paisà and Germany, year zero, this documentary aesthetics largely derives from the use of non-professional actors, recruited in the local population, and filming on location. In the trilogy and in several of his films, earlier and later, his younger brother, the composer Renzo Rossellini, signs the soundtracks. In this article, we will discuss their processes of creation and the aesthetic options of one and the other, in order to show how often they seem to clash or at least overlap. Taking as object the work developed by both in Germany, year zero, we will present as a starting point a graphic – elaborated by us – in which we will relate fifty-five film sequences to the respective soundtrack, as a means of demonstrating our thesis.