Roberto Rossellini – Living Without a Script

Directed by Ilaria de Laurentiis, Raffaele Brunetti, and Andrea Paolo Massara.

Production-wise a follow-up to “The Rossellinis” that was launched 6 years ago, a film with grandson Alessandro Rossellini as director, a family film, where this one has the focus on the master himself:

What a director he was and what fine archives the trio behind this film has found and conveyed. Rossellini speaks in Italian, French and English, and there is sufficient material for us spectators to understand his many affairs and marriages. But first of all it is his approach to his métier that attracts.

After the early successes he was not appreciated in his own country and in the US. It is also what Ingrid Bergman says in one the archive clips. Let’s get rid of the expensive life styles, the maids and the Ferrari’s – Rossellini loved the racing – and live a simple life. I can take care of the kids, she said.

No, that´s not a life, her husband said and changed his carreer in a completely different direction. He went by invitation from Nehru to make a documentary in and about modern India, which became Matri Bhumi (1959), a film that (also) sits in the IDFA archive, shown at the festival in 2020.

All this is more or less known by a film buff like me, what took me mostly is his turn away from the commercial film industry towards non-fiction or if you like documentary, starting with the India film.

He was thinking about how to reach the audience, fascinated by the new medium, television. “I want to discover what I don’t know. It’s the world that matters. Man has always searched for knowledge. I want freedom to do what I like.” Words to that effect. He wanted to film the world as things happen. I am searching to be truthful. He gets more and more curious and is interested in social matters and scientific evolutions and makes film and series for television. He also made an interview with Allende, president of Chile. There is a clip from that. Oh, where can I find the whole film Interview?

And thank you for putting another of my heroes in the beginning of this fine portrait of one of the greatest in film history. Francois Truffaut, who was assistant for Rossellini in the mid 50’es.

Look below, Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis participates again in a film about Rossellini. Wonderful!

Italy, Latvia, 2026, 86 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️❤️

Del med andre
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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