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Tributes to Rome

Rome, Open City

Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 neorealist classic dramatizes the resistance that had met occupying Nazi forces a year earlier. It’s an enduring portrait of a city unwilling to cede its vibrant spirit. Max

La Dolce Vita

Federico Fellini’s 1960 masterpiece shadows a libertine journalist, played by the wonderful Marcello Mastroianni, across a week of work, play, and tragedy in decadent postwar Rome. The film captures how life in the city is a seductive push and pull between ancient and modern, religious and secular. Prime

Bicycle Thieves

For a very different view of postwar Rome, call up Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 landmark film. When a bicycle is stolen from a man who depends on it to support his family, he and his son scour the city’s rougher precincts. Though their desperate search is brightened by moments of beauty and delight, the tale’s ending is crushing. Max

Roman Holiday

The Eternal City is practically the third star of this wonderful romantic comedy pairing Audrey Hepburn with Gregory Peck. The couple’s escapades have inspired viewers’ Roman fantasies for 70 years and counting. $4 on demand

The Great Beauty

Paolo Sorrentino’s rapturous 2013 drama about a famed writer reflecting on decades of hedonistic Roman living is a worthy heir to La Dolce Vita. Visually stunning, it captures contemporary Rome’s beautiful, beating heart as few movies have. Max

Sacro GRA

Gianfranco Rosi’s 2013 documentary, filmed across two years in neighborhoods adjoining the great road that rings the heart of the city, is a dive into a vibrant Rome that tourists rarely see. $4 on demand