Sotto il sole di Roma (1948) User Reviews

Neoralism by Castellani

[Noodles85 · 8/10 · 14 January 2019]

Good neoralist movie with non-professionals actors, all good. The tone of the film follows that of the protagonist's life in contrast with the historical events in the background, with a carefree first part as his adolescence despite the arrival of the war and a more tragic part as the consequences of his choices in a period instead of peace after the war. Absolutely beautiful Rome in those years. Beautiful photography and excellent direction by Castellani, one of the best directors of the time.

Scenes to remember:

• The return of shoe money
• The train journey
• The escape from the bathroom under the bombing
• The encounter between Iris and Tosca at the bar
• The final

Cute Film, But Too Contrived In The Main Plot Points

[MovieGuy-10924 · 6/10 · 8 June 2022]

Good-looking guy hangs out with his friends, indirectly causes the death of his mother and father, terribly mistreats the sweet girl who loves him, and still ends up happy with her in the end.

A lot of the scenes were fun, particularly climbing around in the Colosseum, and it really could have gone somewhere, but every time they wanted to inject some drama in the film, they'd just kill off another parent. I'm sure the movie would have been much longer if he had only had a few more parents to kill off. I wanted to sympathize with the main character, but his repeated cruel actions made that pretty much impossible by the end of the movie.

Worth watching for all of the really great supporting characters.

Blurb.

[ItalianGerry · 3 August 2001]

UNDER THE SUN OF ROME is the first of a trilogy of great comedies which were directed by Renato Castellani after World War II. The other two are E' PRIMAVERA and DUE SOLDI DI SPERANZA. These movies all treat the hardships of post-war life seriously but also with a light and wistful comic touch. Here we see the lives of a group of some appealing young men in Nazified Rome and after the liberation. A shiftless young man manages to return home after being imprisoned by the Germans. After the war he takes up with a married woman then tries to blackmail her. During the course of the film his mother dies, his father is killed, and the shiftless kid must learn to confront life as a real man. As in many of the other neorealist films of the time, director Castellani cast non-professionals in all the key roles. The film is touching, humane, wise and too little known.