Band of Brothers is a big personal favorite. I watch a lot of movies, and I have been trying to revisit films which I really liked years ago. Many of my top favorites from the past are not as good as I remember; this is particularly true with comedies. Two of my favorites from the past: Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be were not great films as I remembered them. They weren't bad; they were still quite good, but considering how much I liked them, not what I hoped.
So when I call a film great and even better than I remembered; you should take this as a serious recommendation. General Della Rovere
is that film. It is the last film in Rossellini's WWII trilogy. It's based on a true story of an Italian con man, a disgraced military officer, who
promised to help find and free relatives for money. He promises to help a man who has already been executed; the wife turns him over to
the Germans. The great director Vittorio de Sica plays the lead role. (I watched DiSica's The Bicycle Thief recently. This is a much more
critically favored film, but it doesn't hold a candle to General Della Rovere.) DiSica's performance as the fake De Rovere is easily one of
the half a dozen greatest performances I've seen on film.
Should anyone be interested; there is a 2013 DVD, a new digital transfer from the original negative, it is available from Amazon. It is considerably less expensive than similar films from Criterion, and I think it is of comparable quality, and has plenty of extras.
