I girasoli

"I Girasoli" is certainly one of the best romantic stories in an honest and pure setting in Italy and Russia. It is a dramatic love story of Antonio and Giovana wanting to stay together in the war. The impossibility to hold on to the newly found and sweetest happiness becomes inevitable in the destructive war, where Anoinio is found half frozen by a Russian woman. The accent lies in finding love in warm sunny Italy and loosing this in the freezing cold war thousands of miles away. Although in this new other world there is love too, it is never the same as before. At the end the search for the lost love is completed and in vain when life has changed there lives irreversibly. Un impossibile ritorno al passato.

I went to a san francisco theatre to see this film along with my mother when I was a teenager in the 60's. It was in english and I loved it so much I saw it twice. I never forgot it, and although it was never shown again, I was told by someone a few years ago, that it was featured on one of the cable channels, and unfortunately I must have missed it. I don't think its ever been shown since. In my humble opinion, this classic movie depicting love, war, passion, separation, hope, and tears should be rated right up there along with Dr. Zhivago, Casablanca, In Love and War, and many other great films of all time. It's a pity that this movie "Sunflower" is nowhere to be found on video or better yet DVD in the english version in the U.S. I did purchase it on video in Italian, and even though I am fluent in Italian and can understand it, others in my household cannot. Can somebody PLEASE see that it gets some recognition, and becomes a familiar movie and available here in the U.S.A.?

In Naples, in World War II, the local Giovanna (Sophia Loren) has a torrid love affair with the soldier Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni), who is ready to embark to Africa. Giovanna proposes him to get married with her to get a leave of twelve days; then Antonio pretends that he is insane and he is sent to an asylum. However, the doctors discover the farce and they give the option to Antonio to go to the Russian front as volunteer instead of being sued. When Antonio is missing in action in Russia, Giovanna does not accept that he is dead. Years after the end of the war, Giovanna travels to Russia with a picture of Antonio to seek him out in the countryside. When she finds a lead in a village, her hope becomes disappointment with truth about his disappearance.

"I Girasoli" is one of the most famous romances of cinema and discloses a beautiful story of love, hope, truth and renounce. Vittorio De Sica explores the chemistry between Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni to the best, supported by a magnificent cinematography and the wonderful soundtrack of Henry Mancini, which certainly is among the most beautiful ones of the cinema history. The screenplay uses much ellipsis, and my remarks are the lack of dates, leaving the viewer without any reference of how many years have passed; further, the dialogs in Russian that are not translated. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Girassóis da Rússia" ("The Russia's Sunflowers")

You know the plot.

Sunflower was Vittorio De Sica's last film. It was dismissed by the critics as hopelessly maudlin melodrama. But anyone who cares enough to be reading this no doubt knows the humanity he crafted into every frame, and the beauty and sadness of life it evokes.

Henry Mancini's theme song is, IMVHO, the very best he ever wrote. I'm reduced to tears every time I hear it. Yet it seems Mancini himself treated as a lesser child. His daughter recorded it to lyrics better left forgotten.

Epic romantic melodrama , set at the end of World War II , dealing with an Italian woman , Giovanna, she is a bereft war bride living near Milan , she conducts a desperate search for her husband, a soldier considered missing in action in Russia during WWII. As her husband never returned after serving on the Russian front . As Giovanna wandering over what feels like the whole of Russia and looking for clues her hubby. A woman born for love. A man born to love her. A timeless moment in a world gone mad. In a world gone mad...a love story. Filmed in Russia from the Kremlin to the Ukraine. A love story that spans two tempestuous decades in a motion picture of extraordinary power and enchantment!

Excruciating drama in which Sophia Loren plays a headstrong Italian wife looking for hubby , going to Russia to find him, starting in the town near the winter battle when he disappeared and much picturesque and soul-searching later she finds him with unexpected consequences . It is a heart-rending and heart-breaking studio of a beloved couple sadly separated by an unfortunate fate . There's a flashback to their brief courtship near her hometown of Naples, his 12-day leave to marry her, and ruses to keep from deploymentby posing as a nutty man . Sofia Loren gives a nice acting as the obstinate woman who refuses to accept that her husband missing on the Russian front, is dead. While Marcello mastroianni is perfect as the amnesic man missing in battle . The Technicolor cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno and David Vinitsi is truly gorgeous. Shot on location in Russia and infact , this film is deemed to be the first occidental film to be shot in Poltava, Ukraine .And positively soaked in one of Henri Mancini's lushest soudtracks.

The motion picture produced by Carlo Ponti and Joseph H Levine , was stunningly directed by Vittorio de Sica . De Sica told about Loren : ¨I consider Sophia a great , a good actress and a great personality. Because she is a Neopolitan. Like me. We are the same people, the same origin. And we feel together the same. Yes, for me, I am very happy when I work with Sophia¨. De Sica was a famous actor and director .He turned to filmmaking in 1940 , making light comedies. His fifth movie collaborated with writer Cesare Zavattini , I Bambi ni ci guardano ,in which showed great sensitivity and nice fIl making . It was also the first movie he made with writer Zavattini with whom he would subsequently shoot "Shoeshine" , and Bicycle thief .After the boxoffice disaster "Umberto D" , he abandoned the Neorrealist genre to make more commercial films than previous . Subsequently , he he made "Yesterday , Today and Tomorrow" with Marcelo Mastroiani and Sofia Loren in which he won another Oscar . His two final films were Garden of Finzi Contini and A brief vacation that had limited success .Rating 7/10 . Worthwhile watching . Above average . Essential and indispensable seeing for Italian films buffs .