My Dad Is 100 Years Old with Rome, Open City presented by Isabella Rossellini

In person: Isabella Rossellini

My Dad Is 100 Years Old

This short tribute casts celebrated actress Isabella Rossellini as herself as well as various filmmakers who influenced or were influenced by her father, filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. Conceived by Isabella on the eve of her father’s centenary, she took a “docu-fantasia” concept to avant-garde filmmaker Guy Maddin after her delightful experience on his 2003 feature, The Saddest Music in the World. A beautiful cinema poem for a beloved father and artist.

2005 | 17 min | Canada | Black-and-white | English | Not rated | DCP  

DIRECTED BY: Guy Maddin  

PRODUCED BY: Jody Shapiro  

WRITTEN BY: Isabella Rossellini  

WITH: Isabella Rossellini, Isaac Paz Sr.

Rome, Open City (Roma città aperta) in 4K

Made for less than $20,000 just after the liberation of Italy by US forces, Rossellini’s first installment in his Neo-Realist Trilogy, which also includes Paisan (1946, screening on November 15) and Germany, Year Zero (1948, screening the same day), is also considered the first product of neo-realism. The devastation of Nazi-occupied Rome serves as an all-too-real backdrop for a story that could have been ripped from the headlines: a resistance leader (Aldo Fabrizi) is pursued through town as he seeks shelter and a safe escape. With “the terror of German occupation [...] still vivid in the minds of everyone,” (Patrizio Rossi, 1988) including Rossellini’s lead actress, the great Anna Magnani, Rome, Open City serves as a prototype for a... series of films that characterize the best of Italian cinema.

1945 | 103 min | Italy | Black-and-white | Italian, German, Latin with English subtitles | Not rated | 4K DCP 

DIRECTED BY: Roberto Rossellini

PRODUCED BY: Giuseppe Amato 

WRITTEN BY: Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini  

WITH: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Vito Annichiarico