Unter der Sonne von Rom

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.