Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

"Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" was just the kind of crowd-pleasing, feel-good foreign film that appealed to American audiences and the Academy in 1964. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, the second De Sica film to win in that category after "Bicycle Thieves". Of course, this isn't in the same class as that neo-realist masterpiece. It comprised of three short stories, each starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. In the first she is the wife who avoids prison by getting pregnant; in the second she is a rich socialite having an affair with Mastroianni's writer, that is until he crashes her Rolls while in the third she's a Roman prostitute forced into taking a vow of chastity for a week but not beyond doing the striptease that earned the film its reputation for 'sauciness' and each story is named after the character played by Loren. It's all very jolly, sunny and likable but it's hardly Oscar material. Sophia, however, is splendid throughout.

There is such a delightful playfulness to this trio of tales about relationships between men and women in Italy. Sophia Loren is in three different roles – a poor mother in Naples who keeps getting pregnant and having children to postpone being jailed for failing to pay debts on her furniture, a rich woman in Naples who has had a one-night stand while her husband is away at a conference and has picked him up the following day in her Rolls-Royce, and a high-class courtesan who does business out of her apartment overlooking Piazza Navone in Rome, attracting the attention of a young man studying to be a priest. I wouldn't say Loren has exceptional range, but she does turn in a solid performance, and plays feisty, haughty, seductive, angry, and bemused pretty well, all while being quite entertaining. Marcello Mastroianni is her counterpart in each tale (one of the clients in the last, not the young man), and is similarly engaging. It was nice to see him so light on his feet as he moved around in that last tale; his expressions were over-the-top (in a good way), and it was funny to see him ask Loren to dress up as a schoolgirl, and then watch her reaction.

The movie feels quintessentially Italian, as the characters are animated and highly expressive. There is also a feeling of genuine humanity and community. There is an honesty here, as each of the stories quite openly acknowledges sexual urges in both men and women as being natural and a positive thing, which is quite refreshing. At the same time, it remains decent and acknowledges a sense of higher morality. In the first tale, Loren's character is tempted but does not sleep with her brother-in-law when her husband can't get her pregnant again, accepts going to jail, and talks to the prisoners there without an ounce of judgment about why they're there. In the second, Mastroianni's character realizes how shallow Loren's is when she's more concerned about damage to her car after they nearly run over a child. In the third, Loren's character realizes that despite an antagonistic relationship with the young man's grandmother (played fantastically by Tina Pica), she has common ground with her, and must persuade the boy to stay on his path. How nice it is that director Vittorio De Sica shows us that these things – lust and morality – can exist side by side, perfectly well.

1963's "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" was, like the previous year's "Boccaccio 70," another anthology feature, this time featuring Sophia Loren with her most frequent leading man, Marcello Mastroianni, starring in all three stories for director Vittorio De Sica. In "Adelina" they are a married couple living in a poverty stricken section of Naples, where she must dodge arrest for nonpayment on furniture by way of pregnancy; "Anna" finds her a bored socialite wed to an often absent industrialist who ultimately chooses wealth over love to Mastroianni's disappointment; and in "Mara" she plays a high priced call girl who vows to spend a week without sex to convince the young man next door to follow the call of the priesthood. Her final reel striptease remains the stuff of legend but is quite tame today, the actress considering it a most pleasing, natural performance. As a 1963 Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film it was a huge success, with both stars reuniting with De Sica for their next picture, "Marriage Italian Style."

Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren star in three stories about - well, men and women - in "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," a Vittorio de Sica film.

The stories vary, with the two stars playing roles that show off their different talents. All three of the stories showcase one of Loren's great talents - her awe-inspiring beauty.

I was lucky to have seen this in Italian with subtitles. The Italian language is so beautiful. I loved hearing it spoken and to see the Italian scenery along with it.

The first story is about a woman who keeps getting pregnant to avoid going to prison for not paying for furniture she purchased. She ends with 7 kids and a husband so worn out he can barely walk. Meanwhile, with each birth, she becomes more beautiful. It's either the longest story or it went on the longest - it's not the most interesting of the three.

The second story involves a rich woman with no regard for anyone but herself and her money, even though she talks a different game entirely to her new boyfriend as they're driving. She keeps bumping into people with her car. When she lets the boyfriend drive, he crashes the car rather than a hit a child, and she has a fit. A real nasty piece of work.

The third story is really the best - Loren is a high-class prostitute who befriends a young man studying for the priesthood. He's staying with his vicious grandmother in the apartment across from hers. The grandmother flings insults at Loren. Meanwhile, one of Loren's steadies, Mastroianni, can't get to first base with her because she's so distracted. This vignette is famous for Loren's hot striptease, which she repeats for Mastroianni again in 1994's "Pret a Porter." Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren are excellent in all of their roles, set against the beauty of the Italian locales. Loren is gorgeous, in fact, beyond gorgeous, particularly in the last sequence. Even today, she manages to dazzle. There's something about her that no American actress can even approximate.

This film may have been a little overrated in its day, but it is certainly well worth seeing.

Yes, the stories are funny and heart-warming...all three of them. And Sophia Loren ALMOST makes you think she's as mean as the millionairess she portrays, talking of her 'humanity to man' while blowing all other cars off the road, bumping into them at stop signs and screaming at poor Marcello Mastroanni for crashing the Rolls rather than hitting a child. Knowing how long Sophia longed for a child, one felt great sympathy for her as she diapered her many children in order to stay out of jail. Italy had a law similar to the English' of 'pleading her belly' to which Sophia and Marcello conform through the births of seven children. The tale of the young priest, the prostitute and the increasingly frustrated 'client' is very well acted, and you can feel the mounting passion of poor Mastroanni as every act gets interrupted at the worst moment.

Of course, I love looking at the towns of Naples, Milan and Rome with all the old streets 'unspoiled' by the modernization of today. Check this one out for some excellent acting in widely divergent roles for both Loren and Mastroanni. No wonder the Museum of Fine Arts has Mastroanni festivals....one for Loren is equally called for. They both act with their eyes, their mouths and their entire bodies!!!