La Loi

This Jules Dassin movie shot in a fishing village in Southern Italy is breathtakingly beautiful! In terms of casting, this Franco-Italian production shows a very strong palette of incredible actors: Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni, Pierre Brasseur, Yves Montand, without forgetting the sublime Melina Mercouri. The plot is all about power and domination, with an assumed sexual touch, in a still very archaic community dominated by paternalistic and machist characters. The arrival of the northern man, played by Mastroianni foreshadows the end of this system, of this "law" from which the two main female characters interpreted by Gina Lollobrigida and Melina Mercouri each try to escape in their own way. As always with Jules Dassin, the care taken in photography, framing and viewing angles ensure an aesthetic delight bordering on perfection. All the actors are excellent, and Gina Lollobrigida bursts the screen with her talent, her look, her energy. But it is also particularly important to note the very convincing interpretations of Pierre Brasseur, Yves Montant and Melina Mercouri, who is truly overwhelming. This film is an absolute must see!

In this heavy Jules Dassin drama, you're treated to an Italian landscape, an Italian-sounding plot, and two popular Italian actors...speaking French. This feels like an Italian movie, but it's in French, so if you like old European dramas, you're going to love this one.

The residents of a poor fishing village are controlled by the powerful Yves Montand. He's menacing, wealthy, and has enough influence to get what he wants by any measure. In the evenings, he plays a drinking game called "The Law" with the men of the town. Whoever is boss for the evening gets to say insulting things to anyone and force the players to humiliate themselves. While this game is the title of the movie, it's more of a symbolic title rather than being the main focus of the plot. Yves may make "The Law" in the evenings, but he also runs the town during the daytime.

I've never been impressed by Yves Montand, but I've only ever seen him in movies where he was forced to speak English. Evidently, the language barrier greatly impeded his acting ability, because in La legge he was fantastic. I didn't even know it was him until halfway through the movie when I remembered who was in the opening credits. He was incredibly frightening, and it was clear he had a love of power and great hopes and dreams for his family. Great villains are not just evil, but they show the audience their motivation. Bravo, and please accept my apology, M. Montand.

The concurrent plot in The Law is Gina Lollobrigida's own power over the men in the town, similar to Yves's control. She can drive a man to madness because her tight dresses and sensual movements make him half-crazed, but in her great power, none of the men who desire her ever force themselves on her. She may not be a frightening force in the town, but she has just as much power. While Yves has his mind set on seducing Gina, she has her heart set on marrying Marcello Mastroianni. This is a pretty racy movie for its time, with love scenes that undoubtedly made Will Hays of the Production Code blush. There's violence, incestuous themes, infidelity, and enough tight dresses to make you forget all about Sophia Loren. Seriously, folks. Gina is so beautiful and distracting in this movie, it's a wonder any other Italian actress ever became popular. And she speaks three languages! Marcello's French accent is also very good, so if you want to see these talented linguists, you'll be in for an extremely entertaining and steamy movie night.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sexual content and violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. A couple of minutes before the end, after Melina Mercouri asks for a drink, there's an abrupt camera spin and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

(1958) Law/ La legge (In French with English subtitles) DRAMA

"Law" as the movie is called is a type of game this small village sometimes plays, and yet somehow echoes like this in real life. Based on a novel written by Roger Vailland, which takes place in a Mediterranean community, where jobs are scarce and the people living their appear to help one another. The movie has film veteran, Marcello Mastroianni as Enrico Tosso which they nickname l'agronomo comes to visit a wealthy baron, Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur) requesting for his daughter Marietta to be his servant for a reasonable amount of money. She declines but rather want to be married to him instead. What's resonating is the fact that it centers on this small community and it is interwoven together in which we as viewers can identify with, since things were different back then. Was this about what happened when the Great Depression hit or when stealing was the only means of making a living? Director Jules Dassin does not say, for he just presents the characters as they're without worrying what the audience thinks about them.

This could have been a great movie, but it is almost unbelievable the way in which Dassin looked at Southern (I repeat: SOUTHERN) Italy in the Fifties of 1900. I was a boy, I did not live there, but in that South I spent my holidays. The best holidays I ever had, due surely to my (then) splendid age and to my (then) splendid country.

A young woman dressed like Gina Lollobrigida could never be seen in those years walking the streets of a southern Italian village.

The magnificent place where the movie was partly made is Peschici (Gargano, Puglia). The name Manacore, in fact, was later used for a very elegant and costly touristic place. I spent several holidays there in the Sixties, and (let alone the Fifties!) never saw a woman dressed that way. And, as far as I remember, they did not go to the beach albeit wearing a diving apparatus (complete of snorkel).

And the music in the local festivals (dedicated to saints, with parades, priests, candles and so on) was very different, almost always neapolitan.

Mrs Mercouri and Ives Montand are surely not at their best (to be kind), but we really re- discover a woman which was at most considered a pin-up, and on the contrary was really a great actress: Gina Lollobrigida.

Brasseur is OK, very human and credible. Marcello Mastroianni as usual shows how one can be a great actor with the minimum of mannerisms (or not at all).

A movie which unfortunately aged very badly.

This drama with brief touches of comedy deals with an unfortunate girl called Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida , though both , Carol Baker and Scilla Gabel , had been contacted to play Marietta's part) , servant of aristocrat Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur) , she is a beautiful woman living in a Sicilian little town where people gather nightly in the tavern for the 'game of the Law' , selecting one by lot to boss and humiliate the others . Marietta , who is pursued by every male in town , is in love with Enrico (Marcelo Mastroianni) , an equally impoverished agricultural engineer . There are various love stories : the judge's wife (Melina Mercouri) chases Francesco (Raf Mattioli) , son of crime mobster Matteo , who is after Marietta . Meanwhile , local boss Brigante (Ives Montand) wants to make sure that his son Francesco doesn't get too involved with the unsuitable Lucrezia , the judge's wife . And Marietta wants engineer Enrico for a hubby , but he claims he's too poor to marry . Marietta then decides to rob herself a dowry from a tourist . Furthermore , there appears the Comissario (Vittorio Caprioli) and her lover Giuseppina (Lidia Alfonsi) , the Judge , Tonio (Paolo Stoppa) and other villagers (Franco Pesce) . All of them are living in a small fishing village near from sea . The whole events lead to disagreeable deeds with fateful consequences .

This film -in which illicit as well as interwoven passions abound- has comedy , drama , emotion , social habits but also contains some embarrassing situations . This ¨Dramedy¨ is pretty well , but sometimes results to be slow-moving and a little bit boring . Director Jules Dassin directs this predominantly romantic drama in which stands out themes about power excesses and various triangular romances that pervade in the Sicilian town . Sympathetic acting by the gorgeous busty Gina Lollobrigida who comes up with an unique way to get money for her dowry , robbing a lot of cash . She is the Bellezza of an Italian town , while Gina is the flame , Ives Montand is the fuse that sets them on fire . Secondary cast is frankly excellent , such as the French Pierre Brasseur and the great Melina Mercouri who co-starred opposite Jules Dassin in his film Never on Sunday (1960) , Rififi (1954) and Phaedra (1961) . In addition , it appears their son : Joe Dassin, who was a popular French singer in the 1960s and 70s . The picture packs an evocative cinematography shot on location in Carpino , Foggia , Apulia, Italy . Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Roman Vlad .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jules Dassin , though has some flaws and gaps . At his beginnings Jules became a stage actor and was a member of a Jewish troupe , as he played character roles in Yiddish . At that time , he joined the Communist Party of the United States , but left the party in 1939 , he said , disillusioned after the Soviet Union signed a pact with Adolf Hitler . He subsequently turned into filmmaker , Dassin's best directorial works for Hollywood include such a dated patriotic flag-waver titled Reunion in France (1942) with John Wayne , Joan Crawford ; a fantastic comedy titled The Canterville ghost (1944) , and criminal dramas as The brute force (1947) , starring Burt Lancaster ; The naked city (1948), one of the first police dramas shot on the streets of New York ; and Night in the city (1950) starring Richard Widmark as a hustler in London who is caught up in his own schemes . While he was assigned by producer Darryl F. Zanuck to make the film , Dassin was accused of affiliation with the Communist Party in his past . As Jules was in the ¨Black List¨ during McCarthy time . He left the United States for France in 1953 and struggled during his first years in Paris . He was not fluent in French , and his connections were limited and at his early stay had little success . At that time , the anti-Communist witch hunt in America was fading , and Dassin was accepted again . However , Dassin's low-budget film , Rififi (1955), famous for its long heist sequence that was free of dialog , (1964) , won him the Best Director Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival . Dassin received two Academy Award-nominations for directing and screen-writing for Topkapi , his greatest hit smash . Jules , finally , directed two failed movies as A dream of passion (1978) and A circle of two (1980)