La donna della domenica

The story is taken from the Fruttero & Lucentini's book of the same title. Mysterious murders take place in Turin, Italy; victims are always people from the upper class. The movie is not a masterpiece. The solution of the cases is not well explained, the director goes too fast in showing us who the guilty is. The movie lacks some dramatical moments. Nevertheless, "La donna della domenica" is still an enjoyable movie. First, the cast is excellent: Marcello Mastroianni is very charming in the role of the elegant policeman Santamaria; Jacqueline Bisset too is delightful in the part of the snobbish lady; also Jean-Louis Trintignant works very well. Other Italian actors (with a long experience in the theatre and at the movies) complete the cast, for example Claudio Gora and Lina Volonghi. Luigi Comencini, one the inventors of the Italian comedy, directs this 1975 thriller with a lot of humor. And, as usual, the music of Ennio Morricone is fantastic (actually that's one of the highlights of the film).

Books are usually better than movies from books, one may say it's a universal truth. And Fruttero&Lucentini's novel is better indeed in this case, read it for proof. But - surprise, surprise! - no bad movie at all: a bunch of excellent actors and actresses, all at ease in their roles (especially Mrs. Lina Volonghi, a great actress whose kind Italy should regret) and the feeling they are all having fun while acting (see the hilarious scene with Mastroianni among a group of prostitutes in the police station). Just good for one of those boring Sunday afternoons in winter.

The Sunday Woman is a dramatic comedy with a murder mystery, but sadly the humor is quaint and childish, focused on phallic statues and pillows in the shape of a butt. I guess this was considered risque to the most conservative or older audiences in 1975 but La donna della domenica FEELS even older than that.

Jacqueline Bisset (yes, that Jacqueline Bisset) plays a wealthy wife of an aristocrat whose philandering husband ignores her nightly, and despite their young daughter, she's quite bored with her life since there are servants and nannies to meet her every whim. Anna Carla in true Mid-Century socialite fashion is besties with a gay man, Massimo, and they ingratiate themselves into a murder mystery that accidentally involves them due to a misinterpreted letter by two recently fired servants.

Bisset is decked out like it's 1955 with carefully curled short hair and tailored dresses, which sets the tone for the entire story. It's one of the most boring mysteries I've seen to come out of Italy from the time period, likely due to its attempts to mimic Hollywood films from a good 15-20 years prior.

"La donna della domenica" is an outstanding film, but one that is unlikely to be fully appreciated by non-Italians, most of whom might see it as a whodunnit of sorts. Its strength lies, instead, not just with its excellent cast, but also with the caustic way in which it describes Turin's high society: full of characters that, behind their apparent stylishness and elegance, betray a penchant for hypocrisy and an inability to look further than the conventional way in which they live.

It looks more like a comedy, and a well-written, witty one at that.

Lightweight, afternoon tea-like Giallo with subtle humour and a nice performance by Marcello Mastrioanni. A kind of Marks and Spencer

giallo.

In Turin, dirty old man/architect Garrone goes about his daily business of looking up woman's skirts, making optimistic passes at young waitresses, and ruining high class are exhibitions. Meanwhile, bored housewife Anna is tuning out her older husband ramblings and thinking about a pointless argument she's having with her possible lover Massimo (Jean-Luis Trintigant). They are arguing about how to pronounce the word Boston, by the way, and this architect Garrone has stuck his nib in about it. Clearly venting, Anna writes a letter where she thinks Massimo and herself should kill Garrone.

Garrone ends up being beaten to death by a giant stone phallus and Anna regrets writing that letter as her two newly-fired house staff take the letter to the police. The man in charge of the case is Marcello Mastrioanni and he's a bit uncomfortable with this whole upper class thing. The bored Anna and the even more bored Massimo start treating the whole thing like a game and start doing their own investigations.

Complicating things further is the revelation that Massimo isn't Anna's lover, as he's in a turbulent gay relationship Lello. While it's refreshing to see an actual gay relationship in an Italian movie from this era, rather than a man in drag battering policeman with a handbag and screaming that he's all woman, these two bicker like fiends and you wonder what Lello is thinking when he also starts his own investigation into the murder to save his relationship with Massimo.

The more Marcello digs, the more dirt he finds as it seems that no one has an alibi and everyone seems to be up to something. He now also has to contend with two eccentric sisters who have trouble with hooker using their garden for business, a mysterious car that's following people around and a stonemason business that specializes in stone phalluses

There's not a great deal of murder here but plenty of mystery, and Marcello Mastrioanni's laid back, bemused cop wanders through a world he doesn't understand, with a few sidekicks, many, many meals, and plenty of discussion about Sicilians, Sardinians, and Piedmontians. It's quite a long film for a giallo and even though it's trash free, my mind didn't wander at all while watching it.

Nice Ennio Morricone soundtrack too - but do i have to say that?