Post by petrolino on Jun 9, 2018 0:47:52 GMT
'Marriage Italian Style'
'Marriage Italian Style' is based on the play 'Filumena Marturano' (1946) by philosopher Eduardo De Filippo which was first filmed in Argentina in 1950. Spoilt businessman Domenico Soriano (Marcello Mastroianni) discovers vulnerable 17-year old runaway Filumena Marturano (Sophia Loren) hiding in his closet in the midst of an intense bombing raid during World War 2. Years later, the two meet again by chance and Domenico offers to drive Filumena to Naples during a thunderstorm. The seeds of a dormant love affair sprout again as Domenico negotiates an open, ongoing contract with Filumena who's survived as a working girl and lived a life unseen.
"Commedia all'Italiana dominated sixties cinema in its native country. Handing out lashings of satire and an equal amount of self-abasement when it came to certain social stereotypes, as well as tragic tones to balance out the farcical elements, the new genre was built on the trend started in the previous decade's "rosy neorealism" - where neorealism became mixed with traditional Italian comedy, resulting in tragicomic cinema with a social conscience. Commedia all'Italiana was a natural progression, more scathing, sexual and grotesque than its predecessor, and infinitely more sophisticated.
According to Maggie Günsberg, "The 1958-64 period of commedia all'Italiana was generally characterised by film whose plots centre on the concerns and predicaments of Italian masculinity, with a predominance of male characters, whether in groups [...] or on their own. Even when their predicaments involve relations with femininity, it is the masculine viewpoint that prevails."
The shift began in an all-male crime caper, Mario Monicelli's 'Big Deal on Madonna Street', which features very little in the way of women (and when they do appear they are peripheral characters). The second most cited forerunner, to which the genre owes its name, Pietro Germi's 'Divorce Italian Style', revolves around the desires of a male aristocrat, Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni), who is desperate to marry his nubile young cousin, but has to deal with his wife, whom he can't divorce because of Italy's laws. These two films laid out a formula for others to follow, creating, especially in the case of actor Mastroianni, and the comedy roles he played, a new kind of Italian anti-hero: the "inetto", or "inept" man."
- Kat Ellinger, 'The Manifestation Of Dreams & Desire: Comedia All'Italiana, The Witches And The Female Perspective'
- Kat Ellinger, 'The Manifestation Of Dreams & Desire: Comedia All'Italiana, The Witches And The Female Perspective'
"Some of his characteristics, like gambling, kept him very busy. He even had to agree to do films that he didn't like. But he had to do them, so he did. He too was a part of industrial cinema, the cinema business."
- Ettore Scola, 'Vittorio D'
- Ettore Scola, 'Vittorio D'
Sophia Loren & Vittorio De Sica
'Obstacle 1' - Interpol
In Vittorio De Sica's poignant film 'Marriage Italian Style', a long, passionate affair between a wealthy businessman and a prostitute is allowed to act as a metaphor for some of the socio-economic changes that had occurred in Italian post-war society, continuing certain thematic concerns that were perhaps most explicitly rendered by De Sica with 'The Boom' (1963). Specifically, 'Marriage Italian Style' soaks up the Neapolitan experience which connects it to 'Adelina Of Naples', the first segment of De Sica's anthology piece 'Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow' (1963). De Sica leaps past intervals in Domenico and Filumena's torturous relationship to paint detailed portraiture during pivotal moments, revealing how Filumena has remained in Naples with little spending money, yet lived a life that's rich with experience, while Domenico has travelled and sampled countless immediate delights, yet remains the same. Because Domenico has always run from his own feelings, he struggles to contain his contempt for the arrangement forged with Filumena whom he views as another part of his entitlement.
"Sophia Loren is outstanding in the role of Filumena, crossing a whole gamut of emotions and taking you with her for the ride: she is in turns vulnerable, determined, in love, funny, strong, sexy. It’s a shame they rarely write roles like these nowadays. The team of Loren-Mastroianni and director Vittorio De Sica was a winning and much loved formula during the golden years of Italian cinema. The well-rounded Neapolitan characters had broad appeal, the script was near-perfect and the big screen has rarely seen such good chemistry as that shared between Loren and Mastroianni. De Sica’s direction was strong but avoided corny sentimentality, allowing his stars to shine brightly and act each other off the screen, Loren with a wholly Neapolitan fiery impetuosity which was close to her roots and Mastroianni with a sardonic, sometimes understated, selfish and vain character. A masterpiece of Italian cinema with a never-bettered team."
- Doralba Picerno, Den Of Geek
- Doralba Picerno, Den Of Geek
"Novelist Cesare Pavese ('The Moon and the Bonfires', 'The Devil in the Hills') once said that the greatest Italian storyteller of his time was not a writer but a filmmaker: Vittorio De Sica. To this day, the mention of De Sica transports us back to the streets of Italy after the Second World War, to characters struggling to make sense of the bleak postwar reality. De Sica is considered to be one of the major figures in Italian neorealism, a trend of the immediate postwar era which sought to scrub off the sheen and sparkle synonymous with the Hollywood style of filmmaking, and make contact with people on the ground. For De Sica that meant the street kids of Shoeshine (1946), the father with a young family in 'Bicycle Thieves' (1948) or the retired civil servant in 'Umberto D' (1952). While acknowledging the importance of these films – after all, the director himself would often refer to them as his finest works – there’s no doubt that De Sica’s career encompassed much more than neorealism."
- Pasquale Iannone, The British Film Institute
- Pasquale Iannone, The British Film Institute
Sophia Loren & Marcello Mastroianni
Vittorio De Sica & Sophia Loren
De Sica opens out De Filippo's play by shooting sequences on location. He invites Tecla Scarano (from 'Adelina Of Naples') in for some action as well as loyal stock company player Marilu Tolo. Sophia Loren looks like death warmed up for most of the picture, her eyes appearing like deep wells filled with bitter memories. When Filumena walks, her limbs hang heavy, but she keeps on moving because she has to, edging ever-forward in her pursuit of finance and education. Her journey is captured through Roberto Gerardi's cautious and attentive camerawork, her laboured movements granted a surprisingly subtle underscore by Armando Trovajoli who uses a classical harp to transition between time frames.
"Two great friends. They were two great actors. Both of them enjoyed certain wonderful atmospheres, for example, those of De Sica who had them make great films. We can't forget the Marcello and Sophia couple in the hands of De Sica."
- Lina Wertmuller, 'Vittorio D'
- Lina Wertmuller, 'Vittorio D'
"She was every director's dream, because she's obedient, patient, nice. The first on set and the last to leave, always. Extraordinary."
- Dino Risi on Sophia Loren, 'Sophia : Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow'
- Dino Risi on Sophia Loren, 'Sophia : Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow'
Sophia Loren & Marcello Mastroianni
'Love Walked In' - Ray Charles
As far as I'm aware, 'Marriage Italian Style' isn't directly related to Pietro Germi's 'Divorce Italian Style' (1961), though there are some obvious commonalities. It's completely unrelated to Bud Yorkin's 'Divorce American Style' (1967), another serio-comic picture that deals with destructive relationships. 'Divorce Italian Style' is based upon a novel by Giovanni Arpino, the writer whose work inspired Dino Risi's 'Scent Of A Woman' (1974) and Martin Brest's remake 'Scent Of A Woman' (1992). 'Divorce American Style' is scripted by Robert Kaufman and Norman Lear.
Sophia Loren & Vittorio De Sica : Seven Times Woman
'The Gold Of Naples' (1954 - segment, 'Pizze A Credito') - Sofia
{An anthology in tribute to Naples, inspired by the stories of Giuseppe Marotta}
'Two Women' (1960) - Cesira
{Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia}
'Boccaccio '70 (1962 - segment, 'La Riffa') - Zoe
{An anthology that pays tribute to the spirit of Giovanni Boccaccio, based on an idea by Cesare Zavattini)
''The Condemned of Altona' (1962) - Johanna
{Based on a play by Jean-Paul Sartre}
'Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow' (1963) - Adelina Sbaratti / Anna Molteni / Mara
{An original anthology in Naples, Milan & Rome}
'Sunflower' (1970) - Giovanna
{A WW2 drama filmed behind the iron curtain in Russia & Ukraine}
'The Voyage' (1974) - Adriana De Mauro
{A period piece based on a novella by Luigi Pirandello}
'The Gold Of Naples' (1954 - segment, 'Pizze A Credito') - Sofia
{An anthology in tribute to Naples, inspired by the stories of Giuseppe Marotta}
'Two Women' (1960) - Cesira
{Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia}
'Boccaccio '70 (1962 - segment, 'La Riffa') - Zoe
{An anthology that pays tribute to the spirit of Giovanni Boccaccio, based on an idea by Cesare Zavattini)
''The Condemned of Altona' (1962) - Johanna
{Based on a play by Jean-Paul Sartre}
'Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow' (1963) - Adelina Sbaratti / Anna Molteni / Mara
{An original anthology in Naples, Milan & Rome}
'Sunflower' (1970) - Giovanna
{A WW2 drama filmed behind the iron curtain in Russia & Ukraine}
'The Voyage' (1974) - Adriana De Mauro
{A period piece based on a novella by Luigi Pirandello}
'Impossible Germany' - Wilco
'The Witches'
'The Witches' is a comic anthology consisting of five short stories directed by Luchino Visconti, Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi and Vittorio De Sica. Each story involves a different kind of witch played by Silvana Mangano. The opening title sequence is designed by experimental animator Pino Zac.
"The Witches serves as an excellent showcase for the versatile skills of DP Giuseppe Rotunno, who shot all five episodes. Rotunno displays impressive range as he moves from the lambent lighting schemes of Luchino Visconti’s segment to the brash primary colors of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s with equal aplomb. Civic Sense deploys a lot of hectic handheld camerawork, and The Sicilian Belle is dominated by solemn blacks and earthy browns. Vittorio De Sica’s segment uses diffuse lighting and a slightly out-of-focus image to differentiate between Giovanna’s imaginings and her humdrum reality."
- Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine
"One of the most interesting types of omnibus film is that which features the same actor in different guises across all the individual episodes. In 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', for instance, we find Sophia Loren at the height of her global stardom playing three very different women in three very different regions of Italy (a black-market cigarette trader from Naples, a rich industrialist's wife from Milan and a prostitute from Rome). It could be argued that female leads escelled in these single-star omnibuses more than their male counterparts.
Apart from 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', you need only look at De Sica's 'Woman Times Seven' with Shirley MacLaine, Dino Risi's 'That's How We Women Are' with Monica Vitti, or 'The Witches' which has Luchino Visconti, Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi and De Sica craft five tales featuring Italian cinema's so-called "reluctant" diva, Silvana Mangano.
Although she never quite attained their worldwide success, Mangano's first major film role made the screen debuts of Loren and Gina Lollobrigida - most debuts, in fact - seem tame by comparison. In Giuseppe de Santis's 'Bitter Rice', she plays a young worker in the northern Italian rice fields who gets embroiled in the fallout of a jewel theft. Her earthy voluptuousness caused a sensation. However, as scholar Leon Hunt has noted, Mangano's career post-Bitter Rice "is harder to map, marked by periods of inactivity, a radical reshaping of her body (from voluptuous "maggiorata" to slender, elegant diva), a well-publicised antipathy towards filmmaking, and the later move into art house (the point at which she usually resurfaces in Italian film histories, but rarely as the centre of attention.)"
Mangano's first role in an episode film came in 'The Gold of Naples', De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini's adaptation of tales by author Giuseppe Marotta. While the film as a whole is best remembered for being the first of De Sica's many collaborations with Loren (who plays an unfaithful pizza vendor in the second episode, 'Pizzas on Credit'), it is Mangano's performance as the eponymous prostitute in the fifth story, 'Teresa', that really stands out. Shortly after her wedding, Teresa finds out her marriage - her long-cherished way out of a life on the streets - is predicated on lies. At the end of the episode, De Sica grants Mangano more than five minutes of dialogue-free screen time as Teresa storms out of her family home and out into a bleak, windswept street. Resting against a street lamp, Mangano brilliantly conveys all her character's anger, frustration and humiliation."
- Pasqule Iannone, 'Omnibus Films, Italian Style'
- Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine
"One of the most interesting types of omnibus film is that which features the same actor in different guises across all the individual episodes. In 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', for instance, we find Sophia Loren at the height of her global stardom playing three very different women in three very different regions of Italy (a black-market cigarette trader from Naples, a rich industrialist's wife from Milan and a prostitute from Rome). It could be argued that female leads escelled in these single-star omnibuses more than their male counterparts.
Apart from 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', you need only look at De Sica's 'Woman Times Seven' with Shirley MacLaine, Dino Risi's 'That's How We Women Are' with Monica Vitti, or 'The Witches' which has Luchino Visconti, Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi and De Sica craft five tales featuring Italian cinema's so-called "reluctant" diva, Silvana Mangano.
Although she never quite attained their worldwide success, Mangano's first major film role made the screen debuts of Loren and Gina Lollobrigida - most debuts, in fact - seem tame by comparison. In Giuseppe de Santis's 'Bitter Rice', she plays a young worker in the northern Italian rice fields who gets embroiled in the fallout of a jewel theft. Her earthy voluptuousness caused a sensation. However, as scholar Leon Hunt has noted, Mangano's career post-Bitter Rice "is harder to map, marked by periods of inactivity, a radical reshaping of her body (from voluptuous "maggiorata" to slender, elegant diva), a well-publicised antipathy towards filmmaking, and the later move into art house (the point at which she usually resurfaces in Italian film histories, but rarely as the centre of attention.)"
Mangano's first role in an episode film came in 'The Gold of Naples', De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini's adaptation of tales by author Giuseppe Marotta. While the film as a whole is best remembered for being the first of De Sica's many collaborations with Loren (who plays an unfaithful pizza vendor in the second episode, 'Pizzas on Credit'), it is Mangano's performance as the eponymous prostitute in the fifth story, 'Teresa', that really stands out. Shortly after her wedding, Teresa finds out her marriage - her long-cherished way out of a life on the streets - is predicated on lies. At the end of the episode, De Sica grants Mangano more than five minutes of dialogue-free screen time as Teresa storms out of her family home and out into a bleak, windswept street. Resting against a street lamp, Mangano brilliantly conveys all her character's anger, frustration and humiliation."
- Pasqule Iannone, 'Omnibus Films, Italian Style'
Silvana Mangano in Vittorio De Sica's 'The Last Judgement' (1961)
'Obstacle 2' - Interpol
1.1 'The Witch Burned Alive' (Luchino Visconti)
Visconti's opener is a social satire about the lengths people will go to to protect their feelings, and the ways in which people project prejudice on to others. Gloria (Silvana Mangano) is a lost celebrity under scrutiny at a party attended by a pack of ghouls who treat her as a bare commodity. It's scripted by politicised filmmaker Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. Mangano was a working-class girl who worked as a dancer and a model before establishing her international film career, so Visconti gets her grooving to 'Cha Cha Beat' by Piero Piccioni. Here, she's surrounded by Visconti favourites playing party guests, including French actresses Annie Girardot and Veronique Vendell, Spanish actor Francisco Rabal, Austrian actor Helmut Berger, English actor Leslie French and Italian big screen icons Clara Calamai and Massimo Girotti. Marilu Tolo has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a whispering waitress.
1.2 'Civic Sense' (Mauro Bolognini)
One of the interesting things about this eclectic stew is the shorts all clock in at completely different lengths. Bolognini's brief film offers a reckless road trip written by surrealist Bernardino Zapponi that presages his collaboration with Federico Fellini on 'Toby Dammit', a segment of the fantasy anthology 'Spirits Of The Dead' (1968). The "lady" (Silvana Mangano) who offers a lift to a dazed truck driver (played by Alberto Sordi) is looking to make political capital by taking advantage of a potentially fatal situation in this macabre snapshot of a nation deep in chaos.
1.3 'The Earth Seen From The Moon' (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Pasolini's entry is tremendous fun. Broad parody it may be, but in the best sense, with Ciancicato Miao (Toto) and his helper Baciu Miao (Ninetto Davoli) engaging in a colourful, robotic celebration of a natural green android witch (Silvana Mangano) they choose to clumsily court in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Frenetic talents Toto and Davoli engineer a crackling chemistry as a pair of con artists, having starred together a year earlier in Pasolini's 'The Hawks And Sparrows' (1966) - Mangano could be the fantasy sister of Luna (Femi Benussi). Pasolini stuffs his tale with concrete images and raw allusions to living dolls and mannequins, pushing Toto to deconstruct Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' character and his questionable relations with women. Laura Betti kills it in drag.
1.4 'The Girl from Sicily' (Franco Rossi)
Rossi's earthy miniature sees Nunzia (Silvana Mangano) instigate a blood feud between rival Sicilian clans. It's a dark revenge drama with a rustic flavour that gets straight to the point. It’s also the one story that deals directly with Italy's history of superstitious belief, old world values and witchcraft.
1.5 'An Evening Like The Others' (Vittorio De Sica)
Visconti's opener is a social satire about the lengths people will go to to protect their feelings, and the ways in which people project prejudice on to others. Gloria (Silvana Mangano) is a lost celebrity under scrutiny at a party attended by a pack of ghouls who treat her as a bare commodity. It's scripted by politicised filmmaker Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. Mangano was a working-class girl who worked as a dancer and a model before establishing her international film career, so Visconti gets her grooving to 'Cha Cha Beat' by Piero Piccioni. Here, she's surrounded by Visconti favourites playing party guests, including French actresses Annie Girardot and Veronique Vendell, Spanish actor Francisco Rabal, Austrian actor Helmut Berger, English actor Leslie French and Italian big screen icons Clara Calamai and Massimo Girotti. Marilu Tolo has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a whispering waitress.
1.2 'Civic Sense' (Mauro Bolognini)
One of the interesting things about this eclectic stew is the shorts all clock in at completely different lengths. Bolognini's brief film offers a reckless road trip written by surrealist Bernardino Zapponi that presages his collaboration with Federico Fellini on 'Toby Dammit', a segment of the fantasy anthology 'Spirits Of The Dead' (1968). The "lady" (Silvana Mangano) who offers a lift to a dazed truck driver (played by Alberto Sordi) is looking to make political capital by taking advantage of a potentially fatal situation in this macabre snapshot of a nation deep in chaos.
1.3 'The Earth Seen From The Moon' (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Pasolini's entry is tremendous fun. Broad parody it may be, but in the best sense, with Ciancicato Miao (Toto) and his helper Baciu Miao (Ninetto Davoli) engaging in a colourful, robotic celebration of a natural green android witch (Silvana Mangano) they choose to clumsily court in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Frenetic talents Toto and Davoli engineer a crackling chemistry as a pair of con artists, having starred together a year earlier in Pasolini's 'The Hawks And Sparrows' (1966) - Mangano could be the fantasy sister of Luna (Femi Benussi). Pasolini stuffs his tale with concrete images and raw allusions to living dolls and mannequins, pushing Toto to deconstruct Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp' character and his questionable relations with women. Laura Betti kills it in drag.
1.4 'The Girl from Sicily' (Franco Rossi)
Rossi's earthy miniature sees Nunzia (Silvana Mangano) instigate a blood feud between rival Sicilian clans. It's a dark revenge drama with a rustic flavour that gets straight to the point. It’s also the one story that deals directly with Italy's history of superstitious belief, old world values and witchcraft.
1.5 'An Evening Like The Others' (Vittorio De Sica)
The closing piece is De Sica's delirious ode to female fantasy that finds Giovanna (Silvana Mangano) plotting to animate her wooden husband Carlone (Clint Eastwood) and make him stimulating and interesting. De Sica launches into multiple parodies of Federico Fellini's glamorous follies and paints a "fumetti" sequence that doffs its cap to some of the subgenre's most prominent directors (Sophia Loren worked as a photo comics model early in her career). There are astonishing moments, some of which are quiet and personal, others spectacular - my favourite moment visually is the turning of the statues during Giovanna's exhibitionist march.
"Clint Eastwood recalled that De Sica offered him only minimal direction, which I think shows in the performance he got, while he literally lavished Mangano with attention and extremely precise direction. Nearly every movement on screen was first enacted by him for her. Despite the inequality of attention, Eastwood ended up having the greatest respect for De Sica as a director because he had the gift of being able to see the entire finished film in his head, so he called cut where he intended to cut in the editing room, and shot only as much footage as he intended to use. There was no improvisation, no exploring the moment, no "let's try it this way", no "one more for safety"; it was exactly the method of directing that his mentor Don Siegel would use when they worked together and which Clint himself would adopt when he became a director with 1970's Play Misty For Me."
- Tim Lucas
"I loved De Sica for his genius ... but I really loved the man."
- Shirley MacLaine
- Tim Lucas
"I loved De Sica for his genius ... but I really loved the man."
- Shirley MacLaine
Silvana Mangano
'She's Funny That Way' - Ray Charles
Silvana Mangano made films with all five directors outside of this anthology, suggesting a strong appreciation of her artistic talents. The contrast in the directors' approaches can perhaps be attributed to their different skill sets: Visconti came from a dominant position directing theatre and national opera; visual stylist Bolognini was also a leading figure in theatre and opera but on who originally trained as a set designer; renaissance man Pasolini was a poet, philosopher, novelist, essayist and painter; Rossi was a hard-nosed anthology specialist who'd become a giant in television; De Sica was a dreamer and a realist, a paradoxical character born a romantic comic, who brought with him a strong background in the performing arts.
) but couldn‘t find it anywhere. So, I have to wait patiently for it to be aired on TV.