FILM SCREENINGS

The Messiah

1975. Italy/France. Roberto Rossellini. Screenplay by Rossellini, Silvia D’Amico Bendico. With Pier Maria Rossi, Mita Ungaro. Never released in the USA and shot in part in Tunisia, Rossellini’s vision of Christ, born a Jew to a young mother, is that of a courageous, socially disobedient man whose words and actions, not necessarily his miracles, were revolutionary. “But he who said ‘the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ has made a political discourse of fundamental importance” (Rossellini). In Italian, English subtitles. 145 min.