Rossellini is perhaps the only filmmaker in the world who knows how to get us interested in an action while leaving it in its objective context. Our emotion is thus rid of all sentimentality, for it has been filtered by force through our intelligence.
Germany, Year Zero(Germania anno zero)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Italy, France, Germany · 1948
1h 12m
Director Roberto Rossellini
Starring Edmund Moeschke, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze, Franz-Otto Krüger
Genre Drama, History, War
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Amid the ruins of post-war Germany, Edmund Kohler, a twelve-year-old boy, is left to his own devices in order to ensure not only his own survival, but that of his family. Amid bleak desperation, Edmund does his best to stay alive and provide for his family, primarily through participation in the black market.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Times by Bosley Crowther
The sum effect of the presentation is a sense of bleak discomfort and despair, unrelieved by any purge of the emotions.
To the critics of the time, it seemed that Rossellini had betrayed the tenets of neorealism...It now appears as Rossellini's first mature work, pointing to his masterpieces of the 50s.
The colossal rubble of Berlin is not just an analogue to the collapse of the social order but an amazing sight, and the movie makes you feel the weight of every smashed faade and fallen stone.
A horror movie that declines to tease.
Short and very downbeat, this hits the irony buttons rather too much but is still an uncomfortable, powerful film.
En Filme by Luis Fernando Galván
The images of the city are extraordinary.
Pic isn't acted but 'lived.' Pro and non-pro cast play it with uniform sincerity. Edmund Meschke is the most impressive of the lot, delivering a poignant, believable portrayal as the young disgraced hero.
Users who liked this film also liked
Stromboli
(Stromboli (Terra di Dio))
A Lithuanian exile in Italy marries a local fisherman who takes her to an island far from paradise.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, United States • 1950
- Director Roberto Rossellini
- Cast Ingrid Bergman, Mario Vitale, Renzo Cesana, Mario Sponzo, Gaetano Famularo, Angelo Molino
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
Paisan
(Paisà)
Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1946
- Director Roberto Rossellini
- Cast Carmela Sazio, Robert Van Loon, Benjamin Emanuel, Raymond Campbell, Harold Wagner, Albert Heinze
- Genre Drama, History, War
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
An Autumn Tale
(Conte d'automne)
A widowed winemaker's friends try to find her a new husband by placing a lonely hearts ad in the paper.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1998
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt, Didier Sandre, Alexia Portal, Aurélia Alcaïs
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
Heaven
After police ignores her accusations, a woman decides to punish the man responsible for her husband's death herself.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, France, Italy • 2002
- Director Tom Tykwer
- Cast Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Remo Girone, Stefania Rocca, Alessandro Sperduti, Mattia Sbragia
- Genre Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Pluto TV
A Curtain Raiser
(Un lever de rideau)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2006
- Director François Ozon
- Cast Louis Garrel, Vahina Giocante, Mathieu Amalric
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Jacquot de Nantes
The origins of artist Jacques Demy as shown through the lens of the inimitable Agnès Varda.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1991
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Philippe Maron, Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier, Brigitte De Villepoix, Daniel Dublet, Clément Delaroche
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
L'amore
An emotional anthology about two women traversing the waters of heartbreak and sadness.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1948
- Director Roberto Rossellini
- Cast Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, Lia Corelli
- Genre Drama
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max
La Terra Trema
(La terra trema)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1948
- Director Luchino Visconti
- Cast Antonio Arcidiacono, Giuseppe Arcidiacono, Venera Bonaccorso, Nicola Castorino, Rosa Catalano, Rosa Costanzo
- Genre Drama
- Available on Vudu, Amazon Video
The Path of Hope
(Il cammino della speranza)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1950
- Director Pietro Germi
- Cast Raf Vallone, Elena Varzi, Saro Urzì, Saro Arcidiacono, Liliana Lattanzi, Giuseppe Priolo
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Caesar Must Die
(Cesare deve morire)
A scripted documentary showing inmates at a prison in Rome rehearsing for a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 2012
- Director Vittorio Taviani
- Cast Cosimo Rega, Salvatore Striano, Giovanni Arcuri, Antonio Frasca, J. Dario Bonetti, Vincenzo Gallo
- Genre Drama, Documentary
- Available on Kanopy
Gold of Rome
(L'oro di Roma)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1961
- Director Carlo Lizzani
- Cast Gérard Blain, Anna Maria Ferrero, Jean Sorel, Andrea Checchi, Filippo Scelzo, Paola Borboni
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Video
The Mayor of Rione Sanità
(Il sindaco del Rione Sanità)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 2019
- Director Mario Martone
- Cast Francesco Di Leva, Massimiliano Gallo, Roberto De Francesco, Adriano Pantaleo, Daniela Ioia, Giuseppe M. Gaudino
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Film Movement Plus