Amor e Ciúme

I can't understand the negative or so-so responses to this. I saw it with my wife on the first day it opened when visiting NYC, without the dubious benefit of having read reviews, because the combination of Gianatti, Loren, Mastroianni, and Wertmuller was irresistible. Both of us were amazed that the critics didn't go bananas over it, as we did. The acting, the script (that was political without hitting you on the head with politics), and the ambiguous ending (with Loren telling each of the men who is the father of her child-to-be) were just lovely. I guess the lukewarm reviews prevented it from getting the wide distribution it deserved. This is yet another film waiting to be released in DVD in its complete version.

This film has it's moments but we have seen them in other films and done better. Sophia Loren looks more like a tragic heroine from a Greek Drama. She's not bad but not a patch on the Cacoyiannis heroines in Stella and Zorba the Greek. The Sicilian countryside is impressive but was captured more attractively in the Godfather sequences. The film rambles on to it's inevitable conclusion which is unfortunately very badly handled it being stagy and melodramatic. Sophia Loren and Giancarlo Giannini just come out with any credit on the acting stakes and I would like to know if Marcello Mastroianni has ever been as inept. However the real turkey of a performance must go to the lady who plays his mother. All in all a very uneven movie just about watchable if you have nothing better to do.

Even though this may not be considered by some as one of Lina Wertmuller's best, it is very much worth seeing, specially for those who like Lina's films or Italian cinema for that matter. I find that the characters might be perceived as a little overblown, but I can also see that it is the only "Lina's Italian" way to express cinematically the passion and turbulence of these seemingly uncomplicated lives and their dramatic unfolding. Here we are not placed in the culturally sophisticated North and for that reason we must place ourselves in this context. We must also remember that geographically we are not only in Southern Italy but In Sicily which bears many more cultural influences than the rest of the mainland. I don't pretend to fully understand or explain in this short review all the intricate connections of time and culture, but in this case the raw emotional material of this "simple people" ironically is very complicated. Lina has captured this beautifully in her usual and unusual brew, mixing as always her own political views with the socio-economic and religion-tormenting issues of those (and today's) days plus the eternal tug-of-war between man and women. I was also very much impressed by the music; Vincenzo Bellini's "Casta Diva" plays an integral part of the story, it is not only wonderful to listen but it also goes very well with the visual aspects of the movie. Life is hard and unforgiving, but the country side is also beautiful and soothing. The personal points of view of these characters (wrapped as simple lives) is selfish for their own reasons but also redeeming ultimately in the light of all conquering love. The twist and turns of fate in this particular story which are such a big part of drama from the beginning of civilization are played partially against the ruins of a real Greek amphitheater and temple, this is visual poetry at its best and Lina knows how to play with it including many vistas of incomparable Sicilian coastal beauty. At the end... all is fair in love as it is in war. See it for yourself.

The film is described as a thriller. I saw it last night and still wonder where the thriller was. What I saw was a sort of comedy of bad taste and I feel sorry for the actors Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and Giancarlo Giannini who were in such a nonsense.

My vote: 1/10.