Caarol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Claxton Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:27 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org; lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] "Ruling Class" as Agent?????
At 01:06 PM 12/16/2010, Carrol Cox wrote:
>I saw it about 60 years ago &remember it only vaguely.
So you saw it when it was still new. Here's Fellini's story of how it got to the States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Open_City
The film opened in Italy on September 27, 1945, with the war damage to Rome not yet repaired. The United States premiere followed on February 25, 1946 in New York. The American release was censored, resulting in a cut of about 15 minutes. The story of the film's journey from Italy to the United States is recounted in Federico Fellini's autobiographical essay, "Sweet Beginnings." Rod Geiger, a U.S. Army private stationed in Rome, met Rossellini and Fellini as they were working on the movie. According to Fellini's essay, Geiger was "a 'half-drunk' soldier who stumbled (literally as well as figuratively) onto the set of Open City. [He] misrepresented himself as an American producer when actually he 'was a nobody and didn't have a dime.'"[1] Nonetheless, Geiger ended up with a reel of Open City, brought it back to the U.S. in his barracks bags, and managed to get the film released in theaters. Fellini's account of Geiger's involvement in the film was the subject of a defamation lawsuit brought by Geiger against Fellini.[2] The film was banned in several countries. For example, West Germany banned the picture from 1951-1960. In Argentina, the film was inexplicably withdrawn in 1947 following an anonymous government order.[6]
>Is that the film that shows the torture of a priest, as well as a
>group of partisans run down in
>rice paddy or swamp? Those are two of the scenes I remember.
There's a scene showing the torture of a communist member of the resistance. A priest who helped him is forced to watch. The partisans in a swamp may be a misremembering of a scene with partisans shooting at German soldiers driving trucks carrying captive partisans to jail. The freed partisans then run away from the trucks and join the shooting when they pick up guns of fallen Germans.
>Oh yes, a mother stopping a u.s. army truck and screaming about the
>rape of her
>daughter???
No Americans at all in this movie.
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