La ciociara

I confess that this film was showing late one night on TCM and initially the idea of a war film was not an appealing prospect at one o'clock in the morning.

That being said,I realized how much we lose by prejudging film, and actors by their more recent performances. As Sophia Loren was popular before my time, I remember her from fluff and spy movies such as "Arabesque" with Gregory Peck. A forgettable film, at most. Not so for "Two Women".

The performance of her innocent daughter Rosetta, is also marked and memorable. Refugees from the bombing of Rome during World War II, Sophia Loren as Cesira, and her daughter are fleeing the city, come across relatives in the country, and encounter a harrowing fate.

The feel of the film is palpable and stark, the scene and the shadows of the men as they come across these two women in the effigy of a church, is ominous and effective. The expressions and body language of Loren are heart-rending and sorrowful, as we see her realize what has become of her daughter, what has become of their world. The scene I will remember most is where she is finally rescued, her daughter begins to sing, recovering from the attack. Cesira (Loren) turns her face outward, toward the window, ravaged and ruined, yet finding some strength to continue on. We see a multitude of emotions cross her face without uttering one word.

Truly a film not to be missed for Sophia Loren's performance alone. 9/10.

I gave this film 9/10 while understanding its weaknesses. First, as others note, the print is the worst I've ever encountered sometimes turning faces into gray pudding, but the problem was not so great to keep me from responding fully to the film's power, and I decided to evaluate the film rather than the print. I have more serious concerns about events at the film's climax which raise issues which are resolved too quickly. In fact these issues might be the subject of a whole new film, and if treated here they would require another hour of play time. The films hasty resolution of these issues makes important behaviors seem poorly motivated and unbelievable. However, the issues in question are not the central issues of the movie. When Cesira apologizes to her daughter (and at other points) I was left sobbing in spite of the film's failure to properly address the daughter's final trauma. This is not a about recovering from trauma. Rather, it is a film about human fallibility and self-deception or, as Michele puts it, "You can't escape, not even from yourself." Cesira faults others while never examining her own behavior. Like those around her, she acts only to preserve her own immediate interests. At the other extreme. Michele's idealism prevents him from realizing his own humanity. Only Rosetta demonstrates the purity to see beyond self-interest, and the instinct to truly tell right from wrong. Her downfall is the tragedy of the film. Yet through all of this the film shows us how, when pushed to extremes, these people are capable of forging deep human bonds. Such bonds have the power to redeem all as they finally redeem Rosetta. I can't conclude without adding my own appreciation for Sophia Loren's extraordinary performance.

Sophia Loren, aside from being one of the most sumptuously sexy women I have ever seen, proves herself here to be a tremendous actress. She has a melodramatic Italian flair that impassions her lovably aggressive character, a widowed shopkeeper in Rome during the Allied bombing in WWII, who flees with her beloved daughter to her impoverish mountainous native region. Throughout the story, she proves to be a strong woman, seasoned by pain and not having lost the fire and fight in her.

Like many European films of its time, Two Women is all about the characters and the current on which they flow through the film, a realistic capsule of a time and place. Vittorio De Sica, who made the beautifully small-scale film The Bicycle Thief, which is about a relationship between father and son, forms a companion piece with Two Women, which is about a relationship between mother and daughter. He addresses strikingly the unbearable love between a parent and their child.

Truly one of the greatest Italian films, this is an absorbing, emotional, modest journey with wonderful music; coarse, down-to-earth cinematography from the wonderful old days of gritty film prints and old school hands-on editing; incredible acting not only from Loren but from the young actress playing her daughter, who drastically transforms; and also from Jean- Paul Belmondo, who convincingly plays completely against type; and a beautifully emotional final shot. For those who feel detached from older foreign films, especially neo-realist, I have yet to see an Italian neo-realist film any more alive than this one!

A unique film about the ravages of World War II, told specifically from the point of view of an Italian woman and her young daughter.

The woman is Sophia Loren, and she won the first ever Oscar given for a foreign language performance in this film. She plays Cesira, a spitfire who is blithely indifferent to Italy's role in the war until the horrors of it hit home in deeply personal ways when she and her daughter leave bomb-addled Rome to trek across the Italian countryside to wait out the fighting. Most WWII films are told from the point of view of the men in combat or the women who wait at home patiently for them, letting their commitment to the cause be their solace. Few films are told from the point of view of women on the wrong side of the conflict (as we've been taught) who don't much care who wins or loses as long as their lives are left untouched. One would be justified in thinking that Loren's character is either selfish or naive, or both, but one would have to be inhuman not to feel compassion for what happens to her and her daughter.

Loren was known as nothing but a sex kitten at the time of this film's release, and director Vittorio De Sica uses this to his advantage. Her Cesira is a woman who's used to being alluring to men and isn't above wielding her sexuality when it might work to her advantage. But Loren goes far beyond sex kitten in this film, to something nuanced and ultimately heartbreaking.

Grade: A

It's WWII. Cesira (Sophia Loren) flees Rome away from the allied bombing for the sake of her 13 year old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). She's a widow of a loveless marriage and she's the object of everyman's desire. They go back to Cesira's home village. The idealistic anti-Fascist Michele Di Libero (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls for her. Mussolini is imprisoned and Michele is overjoyed. They even help a couple of English soldiers. The situation deteriorates as the war closes in and food becomes scarce. A group of Germans force Michele to lead them back to their lines. As the Americans approach, the villagers clear out. Cesira decides to go back to Rome on their own. They take shelter in a bombed out church where they are both raped by a large group of Arab soldiers.

Sophie Loren is magnetic. She powers every scene. Eleonora Brown does a good job keeping up. The story meanders a little. There are a lot of unrelated things that pop up. All of a sudden, there's a Russian deserter. The randomness sometimes help the story. When the story moves to the German occupied town, it really starts to move. The tension gets ratcheted up higher and higher.