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{{Short description|1946 film by Roberto Rossellini}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Paisan
| image = paisaposter.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| director = [[Roberto Rossellini]]
| producer = {{ubl|Roberto Rossellini|Mario Conti|[[Rod E. Geiger]]}}
| writer = {{ubl|[[Sergio Amidei]]|[[Federico Fellini]]|[[Marcello Pagliero]]|[[Alfred Hayes (writer)|Alfred Hayes]]|[[Vasco Pratolini]]|[[Klaus Mann]] (uncredited)}}
| narrator = [[Giulio Panicali]]
| starring = {{ubl|Carmela Sazio|Robert Van Loon|[[Dots Johnson]]|Alfonsino Bovino|[[Maria Michi]]|Gar Moore|[[Harriet White Medin|Harriet White]]|Renzo Avanzo|[[William Tubbs]]|Dale Edmonds|Achille Siviero}}
| music = [[Renzo Rossellini (composer)|Renzo Rossellini]]
| cinematography = [[Otello Martelli]]
| editing = [[Eraldo Da Roma]]
| distributor = {{ubl|[[Joseph Burstyn|Burstyn & Mayer]] (US)|[[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] (Europe)<ref name="wagstaff" />}}
| released = {{Film date|1946|12|10|Italy|df=y}}<ref name="wagstaff">{{cite book|title=Italian Neorealist Cinema: An Aesthetic Approach |first=Christopher |last=Wagstaff |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780802097613}}</ref>
| runtime = 126 minutes
| country = Italy
| language = {{ubl|Italian|English|German}}
| budget = 56 million Lire<ref name="wagstaff" />
| gross = {{ubl|100 million Lire (Italy)<ref name="wagstaff" />|$1 million (US)<ref name="balio">{{cite book|title=The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946–1973 |last=Balio |first=Tino |year=2010 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=9780299247942 |pages=47–49}}</ref>}}
}}
'''''Paisan''''' ({{lang-it|'''Paisà'''{{efn|"Paisan" or "paisà" was a term used by Italians and American servicemen during the liberation of Italy, derived from the Italian "paisano", referring to a person from one's own hometown or country, but also to a friend<ref name="hollywood_italians">{{cite book|title=Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos |last=Bondanella |first=Peter E. |publisher=Continuum |year=2004 |isbn=9780826415448 |page=36}}</ref> or "buddy".<ref name="balio" />}}}}) is a 1946 Italian [[Italian neorealism|neorealist]] [[war drama]] film directed by [[Roberto Rossellini]]. In six independent episodes, it tells of the [[Italian campaign (World War II)|Liberation of Italy]] by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] during the late stage of [[World War II]].<ref name="oxford">{{cite book|title=The Oxford History of World Cinema |editor-last=Nowell-Smith |editor-first=Geoffrey |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=438 |isbn=9780198742425}}</ref> The film premiered at the [[Venice International Film Festival]] and received numerous national and international prizes.<ref name="wagstaff" /><ref name="mubi">{{cite web|url=https://mubi.com/de/films/paisan/awards |title=Paisa |website=MUBI |access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref>

==Plot==
===1st Episode===
During the Allied invasion of [[Sicily]], an American patrol makes its way to a village at night. Only one of the Americans speaks Italian. Local girl Carmela, who wants to find the whereabouts of her brother and father, agrees to guide the patrol past a German minefield to the seaside. While one of the patrol, Joe, is assigned to keep an eye on Carmela in a castle ruin, the others inspect the area. Despite the language barrier, Joe starts to overcome Carmela's distance. When he is shot by a German sniper, Carmela hides him in the basement of the building. Upon the discovery that Joe has died, she takes his rifle and starts shooting at the enemy. When the Americans return, they find Joe's body and assume Carmela killed him. The last scene shows the dead Carmela lying at the bottom of the cliffs, having been shot by the German patrol.

===2nd Episode===
The Allies invade mainland Italy and capture the port of [[Naples]]. An orphaned street urchin named Pasquale happens upon Joe, a drunk African-American soldier who is about to become the victim of a robbery. When the police arrive, Pasquale runs away with Joe, who tells him of his war experiences. After Joe falls asleep, Pasquale takes his boots. The next day, Joe, who turns out to be a [[Military Police Corps (United States)|military policeman]], catches Pasquale stealing supplies from a truck. Joe demands his boots back, but when the boy takes him to where he lives, the sight of the squalor causes Joe to leave without them.

===3rd Episode===
Francesca, a young prostitute in liberated [[Rome]], takes Fred, a drunken American soldier, to the room where she serves her customers. He is not interested in her services and tells her of his futile search for a young woman he met and fell in love with shortly after the liberation of the city six months earlier. As he describes the woman, Francesca realises that she is the woman; both of them have changed so much in the short time that has passed that they do not recognise each other. When Fred falls asleep, Francesca slips out, asking the landlady to give Fred a piece of paper with her address on it when he awakes, and leaves. The next day, Francesca waits in vain for Fred. Fred finds the paper with her address in his pocket, assuming that it is the address of a brothel. He throws the piece of paper away and leaves the city with his unit.

===4th Episode===
The southern half of [[Florence]] is freed, but fierce fighting continues in the other half, across the [[Arno]] river, between Italian partisans and the Germans and their fascist allies. All the bridges except the [[Ponte Vecchio]] have been blown up, stalling the Allied advance. Nurse Harriet learns that the leader of the partisans, "Lupo", is an artist whom she knew in Florence before the war. She teams up with partisan Massimo, a man desperate for news of his family, and enters the embattled city through the [[Vasari Corridor]]. After being held up by a gunfight, Massimo proceeds with his search, while Harriet takes care of a wounded partisan, from whom she hears of Lupo's recent death.

===5th Episode===
Three American military chaplains are welcomed to stay the night at a Roman Catholic monastery in the [[Apennine Mountains|Appenine mountains]] West of [[Rimini]]. Captain Bill Martin, who is the only one of the chaplains who speaks Italian, acts as interpreter. The monks are dismayed to learn from Martin that only he is a Catholic; his two colleagues are a Protestant and a Jew. When the guests and their hosts sit down to supper, Martin observes that the monks have nothing on their plates. He inquires and learns that the monks have decided to fast in the hope of gaining the favour of Heaven to convert the other two to their faith. Despite the rule that meals have to be taken in silence, Martin holds a speech in which he expresses his appreciation for having found his peace again which he had believed to be lost in the tribulations of war.

===6th Episode===
In December 1944, three members of the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] are operating behind German lines with Italian partisans in the [[Po (river)|Po delta]]. They rescue two downed British airmen. On their return to the Italian family who supported them, they find that these have been executed by the Germans. Later, the Allied soldiers and the partisans are captured by the enemy. A German officer explains to the captees his country's motives for the war, and that it will not stop before having achieved world domination. The partisans are summarily executed the next day, and the Allied prisoners shot when they try to interfere. The film closes with a voice-over narration (which opens each episode), stating, "This happened in the winter of 1944. By the beginning of Spring, the war was over."

==Cast==
* Carmela Sazio as Carmela
* Robert Van Loon as Joe (first episode)
* [[Dots Johnson]] as Joe (second episode)
* Alfonsino Bovino as Pasquale (credited as Alfonsino)
* [[Maria Michi]] as Francesca
* Gar Moore as Fred
* [[Harriet White Medin|Harriet White]] as Harriet
* Renzo Avanzo as Massimo
* [[Giulietta Masina]] as Major's daughter
* [[William Tubbs]] as Captain Bill Martin
* Father Vincenzo Carrella as friar guardian
* Captain Owen Jones as Protestant chaplain
* Sergeant Elmer Feldman as Jewish chaplain
* Dale Edmonds as Dale
* Achille Siviero as Cigolani
* Roberto Van Loel as German officer
* [[Giulio Panicali]] as narrator

==Production==
After the success of ''[[Rome, Open City]]'', Rossellini was able to obtain funding from Italian and American investors with the help of producer [[Rod E. Geiger]], who encouraged him to make another film on the [[Italian resistance movement]].<ref name="balio" /> Geiger also supplied Rossellini with raw [[film stock]] and four American players, Dots Johnson, Gar Moore, Harriet White and Dale Edmonds.<ref name="balio" /> The screenplay was based on scripts and stories by [[Klaus Mann]], [[Marcello Pagliero]], [[Sergio Amidei]], [[Federico Fellini]], [[Alfred Hayes (writer)|Alfred Hayes]], and [[Vasco Pratolini]].<ref name="wagstaff" /> These underwent substantial changes during the writing process, and two additional episodes remained unrealised.<ref name="bondanella">{{cite book|title=The Films of Roberto Rossellini |first=Peter |last=Bondanella |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 |pages=64–82}}</ref>

Rossellini's cast consisted of known and unknown professional actors, and of amateurs like Carmela Sazio in the first episode<ref name="sos">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/cteq/paisa/ |first=Allan James |last=Thomas |title=Paisà |date=July 2009 |magazine=Senses of Cinema |access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref> or the friars in the fifth episode.<ref name="criterion" /> Filming often took place in locations which stood in for the episode's settings: The scenes with American tanks arriving in Rome was shot in [[Livorno]], while many interior shots supposedly set in Florence were shot in Rome.<ref name="bondanella" /> Also, the voices of many actors did not match the required local dialect. Sazio, a Sicilian girl in the script, spoke with Neapolitan accent and had to be dubbed, as did the friars, whose monastery was located near [[Salerno]] in the South but supposed to be set in Northern Italy.<ref name="criterion" />

==Release==
''Paisan'' premiered at the [[Venice International Film Festival]] on 18 September 1946 and was released in Italian cinemas on 10 December the same year.<ref name="wagstaff" /> It was released in the US by Mayer-Burstyn in an English subtitled version running 90 minutes in 1947.<ref name="balio" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series |chapter=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips |publisher=Copyright Office, The Library of Congress |date=January–June 1949 |page=89}}</ref>

A restored version of the film was released in the US on Blu-ray and DVD by [[The Criterion Collection]] in 2010.<ref name="criterion2">{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/2415-paisan |title=Paisan |website=The Criterion Collection|access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref>

==Reception and legacy==
Although awarded at the [[Venice International Film Festival]] and by the [[Nastro d'Argento|Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists]], the film's initial reception in Italy was mixed for political and religious reasons.<ref name="criterion">{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1357-paisan-more-real-than-real |title=Paisan: More Real Than Real |last=MacCabe |first=Colin |date=26 January 2010 |website=The Criterion Collection |access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref> Internationally, it received unanimous critical acclaim.<ref name="criterion" /> French critic [[André Bazin]] chose it as the key film to demonstrate the importance of Italian neorealism, emphasising its grasp of reality through an amalgam of documentary technique and fiction.<ref name="criterion" /> [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''The New York Times'' titled it "a milestone in the expressiveness of the screen" which achieves a "tremendous naturalness" through its [[Actuality film|actuality photography]] and casting of unknowns.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title='Paisan,' Italian Importation, Tops Four Openings -- Two Other Foreign Films Seen |first=Bosley |last=Crowther |newspaper=The New York Times |date=30 March 1948 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9F0CE1DD123EE03BBC4850DFB5668383659EDE |access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref> ''Paisan'' received numerous prizes in the US (including the [[New York Film Critics Circle Award]]),<ref name="wagstaff" /> Belgium,<ref name="wagstaff" /> Japan<ref name="mubi" /> and Switzerland.<ref name="mubi" /> Contrary to the prevalent opinion, film theorist [[Rudolf Arnheim]] questioned the exaltation of the monks and their intolerance towards the non-catholic chaplains in the monastery episode,<ref name="moral">{{cite book|title=Moralizing Cinema: Film, Catholicism, and Power |editor1-first=Daniel |editor1-last=Biltereyst |editor2-first=Daniela |editor2-last=Treveri Gennari |chapter=Triple Alliance for Catholic Neorealism |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2015 |isbn=9781315883823 |page=182}}</ref> a view which was shared by critics [[Robert Warshow]] and, later, Pio Baldelli.<ref>{{cite book|title=Fellini's Eternal Rome: Paganism and Christianity in the Films of Federico Fellini |first=Alessandro |last=Carrera |year=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781474297615 |page=24}}</ref>

Film historians and critics who pointed out the film's importance in later years include Jóse Luis Guarner, who titled it "a masterpiece of neorealism as well as one of the peaks of film history,"<ref name="Wakeman">{{cite book|last=Wakeman |first=John |title=World Film Directors, Volume 2 |publisher=The H. W. Wilson Company |year=1987 |page=962}}</ref> [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]],<ref name="Wakeman"/> [[Dave Kehr]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/paisan/Film?oid=1060337 |title=Paisan |author=Dave Kehr |newspaper=Chicago Reader |date=26 October 1985 |access-date=26 June 2022}}</ref> and [[Richard Brody]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/the-ex-axis |title=The Ex-Axis |magazine=The New Yorker |first=Richard |last=Brody |date=25 January 2010 |access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref> [[Martin Scorsese]] listed it among the "39 Essential Foreign Films for a Young Filmmaker",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/scorseses-list-of-39-essential-foreign-films.html |title=Martin Scorsese Creates a List of 39 Essential Foreign Films for a Young Filmmaker |publisher=Open Culture |date=15 October 2014 |access-date=1 February 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207201938/http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/scorseses-list-of-39-essential-foreign-films.html |archive-date=February 7, 2015 }}</ref> and [[Gillo Pontecorvo]] credited ''Paisan'' as the film which convinced him to become a director himself.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies, Volume 1 |editor1-first=Gaetana |editor1-last=Marrone |editor2-first=Luca |editor2-last=Somigli |editor3-first=Paolo |editor3-last=Puppa |year=2007 |publisher=Routledge |page=1474}}</ref> On the other hand, reviewers like [[Tony Rayns]] and Allan James Thomas, although acknowledging its status in film history, remarked upon the film's sentimentality<ref>{{cite book|title=Time Out Film Guide |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1998 |edition=Seventh Edition 1999}}</ref> and a lack of thematic coherence and causality regarding its content.<ref name="sos" />

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0038823}}
* {{TCMDb title|86141}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|paisan}}
* {{AllMovie title|37118}}

{{Roberto Rossellini}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for ''Paisan''
|list1 =
{{National Board of Review Award for Best Film}}
{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1946 films]]
[[Category:1940s war films]]
[[Category:Italian anthology films]]
[[Category:Films about anti-fascism]]
[[Category:Italian black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Roberto Rossellini]]
[[Category:1940s Italian-language films]]
[[Category:Italian Campaign of World War II films]]
[[Category:Italian neorealist films]]
[[Category:Italian war films]]
[[Category:Films about fascists]]
[[Category:Films about prostitution in Italy]]
[[Category:Films about Italian resistance movement]]
[[Category:Films set in Sicily]]
[[Category:Films set in Naples]]
[[Category:Films set in Rome]]
[[Category:Films set in Florence]]
[[Category:Films set in Emilia-Romagna]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Films about religion]]
[[Category:Films about Nazis]]
[[Category:Films about race and ethnicity]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Federico Fellini]]
[[Category:1940s political films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Renzo Rossellini]]
[[Category:Italian World War II films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s multilingual films]]
[[Category:Italian multilingual films]]
[[Category:1940s Italian films]]

Paisan - Revision history

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