Regina Roma

"Regina Roma" is a film which looks much like a play, as the entirety of the story takes place in a home...and mostly in the living room. It also has a small cast of four and in style it sure looks like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". It also seems like it as well, as during the course of the story, you see just how screwed up these four people are...and it's pretty painful to watch (which is why I am not a fan of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). But before the pain sets in, the film is quite slow...so much so I had a hard time sticking with it...and it then morphed into the Christmas from Hell!

This film marks the final big screen appearance by Ava Gardner. Her co-star is Anthony Quinn. Both are good with what they are given. But the script is slow, depressing and claustrophobia-inducing. In other words, it's NOT a pleasant movie to watch.

To see Anthony Quinn in yet another wonderful performance is always a pleasure. This time the drama is not set in vast planes or big boats, but in a living room in which a reproduction of a Cezanne painting is the only thing worth mentioning. So much more for the story; fit to be a Tennessee Williams-drama, but written by Pierre Rey. Maybe the acting of Ava Gardner is slightly over the top every now and then, but Ray Sharkey is fine and Anna Karina as the shy 'Regina' is as great as the old fox Quinn. The quality of the dvd is poor, but what is depicted is really worth attention. A good film.

Altho it doesn't really matter, the geographcal location of this domestic crash and burn is perplexing, to say the least. The production was apparently filmed in Italy, and the characters are maybe meant to be an Italian family somewhere in Louisiana - mention made of Baton Rouge and sepia tinted flashbacks to New Orleans style cemeteries and Spanish Moss draped oak trees. But no one is affecting Louisiana southern accents, so, yeah, perplexing.

Actually all the acting is fine - Anthony Quinn is simply excellent as "Papa", Ava Gardner, "Mama" is iconic-ly neurotic and the son and fiancé play their roles as intended, I think.

The narrative is straight Tennessee Williams southern family gothic - Mama, Papa and Son, only child, have lived as a tight - claustrophobically tight - family unit for 37 or so years. So, you won't have to stretch your imagination to imagine Mama's reaction to Sonny walking in the front door with a Fiancé, out of the blue (altho, it's raining outside, with thunder cracking at all the right times, no less). And, also, a/la Tennessee Williams southern gothic, there are a LOT of innuendoes and dramatic freeze-frame cross stares as among Mama, Papa, and Sonny Boy as the tensions gain steam - you know what I'm talking about.

It might be said that Eva Gardner's performance is a tad too theatrical for a filmed production in basically a one-room indoor setting - but that's the director's fault, he should have guided her as to hitting the right tenor which I sure she could easily achieved, she's clearly 100% the great actress that the name Ava Gardiner evokes.

Well, bottom line, I recommend this as a quite worthwhile "curiosity" piece; I don't think you'll regret it and it is a close-up prolonged glimpse of two very great actors - Gardiner and Quinn - in a tight little bare bones production where their acting has to carry the whole thing.

:-)

"Regina Roma" is one of the last films starring Ava Gardner and Anthony Quinn. Alas, it proves a disappointment,a one-set drama of the old "kitchen sink" variety. Gardner plays the smothering mother of the late Ray Sharkey who brings home his fiancée,Regina, played by the legendary European actress Anna Karina. Gardner, Quinn and Sharkey mouth clichéd dialogues. Only Karina emerges unscathed because she is kept silent most of the time! And she has been de-glamourized, hiding her big beautiful blue eyes behind chunky frames and sheathing her splendid body in dowdy clothes. The movie seems padded out with flashbacks that don't match the main action.The DVD I bought lists (quite improbably) a famous orchestra conductor as the movie's producer.

Brilliant actors in a play of three and a mute - simply watching forth person. Ava Gardner is on top, playing with persuasion and great skill the over dominant Italian I think, mother. She uses all tricks and lies to have her husband and son on her hand. She wants to be the only person in their lives, and that turns to be an absolute catastrophe to their day routine. The drama reaches it's pick when she rejects his son's fiancé as improper for him, accusing her that she's a prostitute! All action takes place in the living-room with Anna Karina (fiancé) watching dumbfounded, Anthony Quinn (husband) accusing her all the time, and the son begging her to stay with them - not to abandon them! Really an opportunity for Ava Gardner's big talent in dramatic, theatrical roles. I consider that her beauty apart, Ava Gardner was a great actress - equal to Liz Taylor.