Il testimone dello sposo

This film has so much going for it--exquisite art direction, beautiful costumes, wonderful cinematography, and a loving and meticulous attention to detail in depicting a turn of the century (1900) wedding in a small Italian town--that I would rate it higher but for the somewhat implausible screenplay.

Without giving plot details away, suffice it to say that the film begins with an interesting premise as it explores the betrothal rituals of this particular time and place that reduced women to objects essentially bartered away to the highest bidder. The heroine of the story, played by the absolutely exquisite Ines Sastre, rebels on her arranged-marriage wedding day, and the plot continues from there.

Diego Abatantuono, no slouch himself in the looks department, plays a long absent stranger who, having made his fortune in America, returns to the town and ends up participating in the ceremony. Things get more complicated from there.

Both actors are outstanding in their roles, but in the end a willing suspension of disbelief is needed to accept the film's conclusion. However, the visuals are so stunning, the period detail is so layered, and the principal actors (as well as the those who play the townspeople, all given their moments) are so fascinating to watch that almost all is forgiven.

Hopeful that the New Italian Cinema produced another little gem in its 90's renaissance, went to see this motion picture with high expectations. While the costumes and indoor settings were marvelous, the rest was disappointing.

Some of the dialogues made little sense, or were artificially forced on the actor's mouth. The acting didn't see spontaneous, and some of the characters just seemed to make little sense. Another big disappointment was the dubbing of dialogues that clearly didn't follow the actor's lips: listening to mono-tone reading of dialogue text, and watching the lips simply not sinchronized to the listened voice, just makes this movie a turn-off. This movie reminded me of some of the made-for-TV productions of RAI-TV that catered to a domestic forced-fed audience when RAI was the only TV station in the entire country twenty years ago, and the audience had no other choice but to watch the only show in town. In its defense, there were some interesting moments in the plot, like the slide show shown to the italian audience, of pictures of America. But at the end, this movie was like reading a book whose turn-paging incentive is to find out when things were finally happening, only to find out at the end that the climatic moment never happened. Very anti-climatic.

the two negative comments widely miss the mark on this movie , and show why Italian cinema is so much more appealing , often , that ideologically-drenched politically-correct dumbed down American movies often enough these days.

first , the film showed a certain epoque as it was , and as such no reason to portray a character confirming with today's poliical correctness. as far as the dialogue which revealed both subtle individual and societal personalties and trends , they were much deeper than the previous poster recognized. second, the wishes for the turn of the century are reflected in literature and newspapers of the period, my grandparents often commented on this - and the tragedies of the 20th century were quite at odds with what Europeans in the West thought progress would bring.

Last, the final scene in the movie by itself is worth the whole film, romantic and touching . definitely Ines Sastre's finest moment in her career in my opinion. Having lived in the "old" Italy of the 1960's much in this film hit a chord. A wonderful movie, and thank god no American political correctness !

On new year's eve 1899 a young woman is betrothed to marry a man she doesn't want to. The best man arrives on the scene an she falls instantly in love.

The art direction and costumes are beautiful in this period drama, but many of the tongue-in-cheek references are a bit jarring. For no reason characters say things like, "I wonder if we'll go to the moon in the next century" and "the 1900s will know no war.

As far as portrayal of women. It starts out as a woman trying to take control of her life and ends up depicting her as an obsessive, submissive nut who is convinced she married the best man at her wedding rather than the groom.

Two of the three previous squibs here are negative. Ignore 'em. This film is delectable-- showed it to a roomful of old/young relatives Christmas night, and they all were delighted (while arguing with a pat ending). Huge cast-- more than 40 speaking characters, nearly all distinct and well-acted. Reminiscent of Visconti's THE LEOPARD, its art direction and costumes make for a lovely evocation of provincial Italy wedding, everyone in their best, on Dec. 31, 1899 (a good reason for rushing out to rent it right now). Most interesting as a compendium of folk rituals surrounding weddings in late nineteenth century, some familiar and a few bizarre. The film would be worth seeing for that alone-- but watch for the delicacy of the hero's interactions with the several women who pursue him, or the two beautiful group scenes over the wedding gifts.