Ciúme à Italiana

When l watched this movie in early 1984 I' wasn't able and ready to understand how complicate is an Italian comedy at all, they talk louder, so many facial expressions, body language, whatever they are different, so that time l'd gave a low grade 4/10, now on first revisiting on DVD l've increase a little to 7.5/10, still is very low underrated by IMDb's users, well l've to confess that the movie didn't make my head, maybe a dated movie, Ettore Scola was a fine director like in Brutti, Sporchi e Cattive that is really good movie, even often of dubious taste humor!!!

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First watch: 1984 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.

Awesome movie. I had never before watched an italian comedy but this one impressed me very much. The way that Ettore Scola deals with the tragic themes of the film is absolutely remarkable. By a use of the brechtian detachment he at first makes you laugh at horrible things such as suicide and conjugal violence while at the same time reminding you that what you are seeing is a film by constantly breaking the fourth wall and then at the end of the movie he makes the audience feel absolutely uncomfortable and guilty for indulging themselves in the humor of the film as he points out that these are not laughing matters and actual things that happen. I also love the not monogamous undertone this one has and i can't help but thinking that the director implies that monogamy is outdated and one of the sources of violence against women. One thing that in a way validates this argument is the fact that Ettore Scola casts Monica Vitti in this, the same Monica Vitti famous for L'avventura and La notte, both films that deal with some of the same issues and always with the thought that maybe we would be better off if we renewed our morals (that by the way was sort of a obsession of Antonioni at the time, just watch his interviews). Anyway it's a film and you can interpret it in whichever way you like to, i'm just here to say that it is a great, funny, beautifully shot, amazingly acted ( i absolutely love Monica Vitti in this), and amazingly scored and for those reasons, even if the politics in this don't interest you, you should see it regardless.

The fact that Paul Frees seems to do all the men's voices except for Marcello Mastroianni's and Giancarlo Giannini's seems to add a certain sameness to all the other men in the dubbed version of this film. Mastroianni is a communist bricklayer in love with Monica Vitti and she with him. He's best friends with Giannini, a Communist pizza maker, who's in love with Monica Vitti and she with him. It's like a dirty joke about them commies, they share everything. Except being human, they can't. It drives everyone crazy and the movie is very funny.

There seems to be enormous amounts of real subtextual commentary lost in translation. Mastroianni has his middle left finger in a sling throughout the movie, and is occasionally found on trash heaps. Given that his character's name is "Oreste" I think there's a reference to the classical legend, but it's not the Homeric, Pindaric, Sophoclean versions, but the bogus Robert Graves Year-King, fighting over Monica Vitti. Mastroianni does have flies buzzing around him a lot, indicating he's the Old King.

Given three screenwriters, including Age and Scarpelli, and Ettore Scola directing (he had given Vitti her first screen role almost two decades earlier), there is obviously a lot in this movie that is both precisely of its time and of its place, ill suited to the sort of random translation that an Italian sex comedy got in the 1970s. Unless someone is willing to go back and do a more careful translation, there's little more than a funny and bizarre comedy here. However it certainly is that.

Adelaide (Monica Vitti) kisses unconscious bricklayer Oreste (Marcello Mastroianni) on a pile of rubble. He's angry at the garbage piles in the city. She's obsessed with him. Pizza maker Nello (Giancarlo Giannini) is obsessed with her. It's a love triangle.

I really like the surrealism early in the movie. It's a little weird that it turns into threesome and then it gets serious with the jealousy. This did win a few European awards. It's a pizza with widely different toppings. It's never safe. It's a farce. I'm not laughing that much, but it is fascinating. Her suicide attempt is kind of funny. I was never sure of how this was going to end.

A brilliant film; all three leads are just magnifico and Monica Vitti never looked better. Vitti, Mastroianni and Giannini in one film! Sharp treatment of un amour fou. Had never heard of the film before I recently saw it at a festival of restored films at MoMA in New York--what a terrific surprise, a genuine treat, funny and dark film about obsession. I doubt it could ever have been made in the US unfortunately; can't think of any American directors who could handle this successfully. Mastroianni shows his great range. If you love Italian film, see it soon! Now I'm going to see any other Ettore Scola films I can find or haven't seen yet.