Paisan (1946) on Netflix
During the Allied push up Italy, six unconnected episodes pair American soldiers with Italian locals. In Sicily, Carmela guides a patrol through a minefield toward the sea.
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- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Six separate episodes, unfolding from July 1943 into late 1944, follow the Allied campaign up Italy as German troops fall back from the island of Sicily toward the Po River. American military personnel meet Italian locals along the way, some welcoming them and others not. In the first story, set in Sicily during the invasion, a girl named Carmela agrees to lead an American patrol past a minefield toward the seaside because she wants word of her brother and father; while the others scout the area, a soldier called Joe is left to watch over her. In Naples, an orphaned street urchin named Pasquale comes upon a drunken African-American soldier.
Cast
- Carmela Sazioas Carmela (episode I: Sicilia)
- Robert Van Loonas Joe - American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Benjamin Emanuelas American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Raymond Campbellas American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Harold Wagneras Harry, a German soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Albert Heinzeas German Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Merlin Berthas Merlin - American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Mats Carlsonas Swede - American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Leonard Parrishas American Soldier (episode I: Sicilia)
- Alfonsino Pascaas Pasquale (episode II: Napoli)
Show all 20 cast
- Gar Mooreas Fred - American Soldier (episode III: Roma)
- Renzo Avanzoas Massimo (episode IV: Firenze)
- Dale Edmondsas Dale - OSS Agent (episode VI: Porto Tolle)
- Roberto Van Loelas German soldier
- John Whaling Allenas American Soldier (episode VI: Porto Tolle)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Paisan (1946)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Many actors' voices did not match the local dialects the script required. Carmela Sazio, a Sicilian character, spoke with a Neapolitan accent and had to be dubbed, as did the friars, whose monastery near Salerno in the south was supposed to be in northern Italy.
- The film shot stand-ins for its real settings: the scene of American tanks arriving in Rome was filmed in Livorno, and many interior shots supposedly set in Florence were shot in Rome.
- Paisan turned a viewer into a filmmaker: Gillo Pontecorvo credited the film with convincing him to become a director himself.
- In 2008 Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage placed Paisan on its list of 100 Italian films to be saved, films said to have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978.
- The screenplay drew on scripts and stories by Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini, Alfred Hayes and Vasco Pratolini, and changed substantially while being written; two further episodes were never realised.
