Tackling history, conscience intact

Filmmaker Francesco Rosi believes in cinema as an act of conscience, an act of artistry and, most of all, an act of remembrance. His 1996 film "The Truce" made its Princeton premiere April 3, and it documents with great compassion the journey of the writer Primo Levi, from his liberation by the Russians at the extermination camp, Auschwitz, through the Ukraine and Germany, and finally, back to his native Italy.

The importance of the cinema in memorializing the struggle of the victims of the Holocaust is deeply meaningful to Rosi who, in the 1980s, perceived growing indifference about the horror of World War II and Nazi genocide. In one of the three talks he gave as short-term fellow of the Humanities Council and Romance Languages and Literatures Department, Rosi explained, "I got the impression that people forgot the Holocuast, forgot the tragedy of the film . . . I think thanks to the cinema [now] . . . the tragedy of the Jewish people is on the lips of everyone."

In Rosi's lectures at the University, his affability and personability were expressed both through his enthusiasm and energy and through his broad hand-gestures and playful sense of humor. He exuberantly answered one question about the soundtrack of his films, "You like or not? I like!" Rosi's social compassion is matched by his interest in helping and supporting students in their efforts to understand film. He was reluctant to conclude his first talk, even after speaking for an hour and a half, and said, "It depends on the audience. I don't stop. If they want me to stop, I stop."

A renowned Italian filmmaker heralded by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Rosi has been making films for more than 30 years and considers himself a "realizer" rather than a director. As he explained, "You can direct a film if a producer give to you a script. But I have to realize my idea to make a film."

As a director and screenwriter, Rosi is committed to the ideological rendering of history. His works, for the most part, have been political in nature, with social commentary suffusing the characters and the plot with life beyond the scope of the screen. "Three Brothers," for example, documents the reactions of three brothers, each from a separate walk of life — one a social worker, one a judge and one a factory worker — to their mother's death and to the state of life in Italy in the 1960s. Rosi's moral commitment emerges in this film too, which addresses the issue of terrorism in Italy — a frightening topic in his country at the time of the making of the film.

Rosi sees film as the most primary and effective way of teaching history. "To teach history now with the help of the images, you can't explain the world 50 years ago without film," he said. "I am sure the young understand everything because they see the images."

Tackling daring, disturbing and even tragic historical topics provides Rosi with a moral goal and an outlet for his own beliefs. Actor John Turturro, star of Rosi's "The Truce," who came to speak in a roundtable with Rosi, said, "I hope it [the film] helps people begin to not cringe or to run away from topics like these." Rosi said he hopes that, as a cultural artifact, his films will help influence how people think, feel and ultimately act: "A film is an object," he said. "This object is destined to live, I don't say for eternity, but to live."