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Roberto Rossellini is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. And it was with his trilogy of films made during and after World War II Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero that he left his first transformative mark on cinema. With their stripped-down aesthetic, largely nonprofessional casts, and unorthodox approaches to storytelling, these intensely emotional works were international sensations and came to define the neorealist movement. in battle-ravaged Italy and Germany, these three films are some of our most lasting, humane documents of devastated postwar Europe, containing universal images of both tragedy and hope. THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES - New high-definition digital restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks - Introductions by Roberto Rossellini to all three films - Interviews from 2009 with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà, film critic and Rossellini friend her Virgilio Fantuzzi, and filmmakers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani - Audio commentary from 2009 on Rome Open City by film scholar Peter Bondanella - Once Upon a Time . . . Rome Open City, a 2006 documentary on the making of this historic film, featuring rare archival material and footage of Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, Ingrid Bergman, and many others - Rossellini and the City, a 2009 video essay by film scholar Mark Shiel on Rossellini s use of the urban landscape in The War Trilogy - Excerpts from rarely seen videotaped discussions Rossellini had in 1970 about his craft with faculty and students at Rice University - Into the Future, a 2009 video essay about The War Trilogy by film scholar Tag Gallagher - Roberto Rossellini, a 2001 documentary by Carlo Lizzani, assistant director on Germany Year Zero, tracing Rossellini s career through archival footage and interviews with family members and collaborators, with tributes by filmmakers François Truffaut and Martin Scorsese - Letters from the Front: Carlo Lizzani on Germany Year Zero, a podium discussion with Lizzani from the 1987 Tutto Rossellini conference - Italian credits and prologue from Germany Year Zero - PLUS: Essays by James Quandt, Irene Bignardi, Colin McCabe, and Jonathan Rosenbaum