According to François Truffaut, Roberto Rossellini was the first film director who showed children as they really are, «graves et réfléchis», rather than as so many picturesque little animals. For this reason, the Italian director succeeded earlier and better than others in representing their «gravité», that is, that mixture of seriousness and heaviness, in a metaphysical sense, which combines the specific weight of thoughtful reflexivity with that evoked by gravitas. This essay studies this combination in three films: the Neapolitan episode of Paisà (1946), where the little urchin behaves like an adult, while the American soldier acts like a child; Germany Year Zero (1948), where the adults are all unbalanced compared to the child, who will ultimately pay for their mistakes with his own life; Europa '51 (1952), where the child plans to commit suicide while his parents play with an electric toy train.
E. DAGRADA (2008). L'attore bambino nel cinema di Rossellini. L'ASINO DI B., XII(14), 101-111.
L'attore bambino nel cinema di Rossellini
E. DAGRADA
2008
Abstract
According to François Truffaut, Roberto Rossellini was the first film director who showed children as they really are, «graves et réfléchis», rather than as so many picturesque little animals. For this reason, the Italian director succeeded earlier and better than others in representing their «gravité», that is, that mixture of seriousness and heaviness, in a metaphysical sense, which combines the specific weight of thoughtful reflexivity with that evoked by gravitas. This essay studies this combination in three films: the Neapolitan episode of Paisà (1946), where the little urchin behaves like an adult, while the American soldier acts like a child; Germany Year Zero (1948), where the adults are all unbalanced compared to the child, who will ultimately pay for their mistakes with his own life; Europa '51 (1952), where the child plans to commit suicide while his parents play with an electric toy train.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
