Director: Vittorio De Sica
Writers: Alberto Moravia (novel), Cesare Zavattini
Stars: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raf Vallone
Cesira and her 13-year-old daughter, Rosetta, flee
from the allied bombs in Rome during the second world war. They travel to the
village where Cesira was born. During their journey and in the village, the
mother does everything to protect Rosetta. However, on one occasion they both
get raped by soldiers hiding in a church. This cruel event is too much for the
always powerful fighting Cesira and she suffers from a breakdown. During their
stay in the village, a young intellectual, Michele falls in love with Cesira
who does not know how to reply to the advances of such a gentleman.
It's curious to see the life during the War in the Italian Neorrealism, it is very similar to the life during the Civil War or the Postwar in Spain. About the old works, such as the coal shopkeeper or the old transports (old trains, mules...).
ReplyDeleteSophia Loren is great in this movie, if not she had never won an Oscar in an Italian speaking movie!
ReplyDeleteMediterraneam cultures are very similar. In the movie they talk about the "melancholy in Italy", how they seem happy externally and they have a kind of sadness or melancholy inside. Federico García Lorca also talked about the "pena negra" (black sadness) in Andalousian people, just with the same meaning
ReplyDeleteAlso to emphasize how women stereotype has changed. In the sixties, women used to be fatter. Sophia Loren was a sexual icon, even if she wasn't too slim and she was really beautiful.
ReplyDelete