The White Ship (Roberto Rossellini, 1941) that heals the Blackshirts

As US bombardments caused death and destruction, common people realized that the fascist ads of a quick war without penalty were a tragic governmental lie. After the propagandist frenzy of military exaltation documentaries like Ali fasciste (Fernando Cerchio, 1941), directors and employees of Cinecittà held back their support for an aggressive military policy. In 1941 Pavolini, the Popular Culture Minister, approved immediately funding for a series of films that instilled a vision of war as a condition serenely accepted by soldiers. It was proposing a new form of heroism that alienated the belligerent attitudes and rewarded solidarity, selflessness and sacrifice. This paper wants to analyse how this new course, and in particular The White Ship (1941, the first feature of Rossellini), contained the first neorealist aesthetic seeds.