Malèna

Firstly, this movie is a perfect lesson about Sexual Exploitation and Harassment.

As a man it touches my heart when seeing an innocent and faithful woman how community and war impacts made her to undesirable whore!

By this movie's story you understand that there are too many women victims like Malena!

Another lesson is for governments to not ignore the war made widows.

Overall, it's a great movie 👏

What a beautiful surprise. I loved Malena for its honesty, simplicity and the way it portrayed the life of the young boy in the early 40's. It reminded my of a lot of good movies I have seen throughout my life. Malena is one of those movies that gets stuck in your mind. I enjoyed the movie very much and recommend it to all.

The film is developed on WWII in a small town from Sicily,there live an adolescent(Renato)coming of age,he is obsessed of a married woman(Monica Belucci)whose husband was to the war.The young man tries to help her but he is enamored and is too young .We see him growing up during a few years and by Malena he changes his life forever.

The picture contains drama and nostalgia completely wrapped in an enjoyable love story between an innocent young boy and a beautiful woman.The movie gets a sharply social critical about village customs,habits and gossips leading to mistreats and violence. The story is narrated with great sense and sensibility,the intelligent screenplay is by Luciano Vincenzoni(Sergio Leone's usual screenwriter).Gorgeous Monica Bellucci is sensational although she barely talks throughout the movie and the starring boy is sympathetic and agreeable;another actors are good but they are unknown.Glowing cinematography with scenarios colorfully and splendidly photographed by Lajos Koltai who reflects the elegant beauty Monica Belucci.Sensible and moving score musical by the veteran master and prolific Ennio Morricone who was nominated with a deserved Academy Award.The picture is produced by the great American brothers producers:Harvey and Bob Weinsten and well directed by Giuseppe Tornatore who made a similar nostalgic film,the excellent¨Cinema Paradise¨. Ratting :Better than average,well worth watching by a beautiful,exceptional Monica Bellucci.

Malena is a beautiful and deeply touching film. It is a masterful combination of sites, sounds and colors. The two leading actors (Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro) are simply excellent at what they are supposed to convey in this movie. Apart from her truly majestic elegance, Monica Bellucci invests her character (Malena) with an aura of tragedy, of some profound and unrelenting emotional trauma and pain which remains unspoken throughout the film and reaches its climax at the very end. Malena's stunningly beautiful eyes remain constantly downcast, and her face -- tense and pierced through by psychic pain (she rarely raises her face, let alone speaks words). Renato (the teenage boy) wins his audience by his incredibly pure and valiant love for Malena (this affection he carries in his heart for several years). She becomes his muse, his courage, his sense of honor, his whole rationale for confronting difficult and disruptive life of the war-torn Italy. I agree completely with another commentator who said that the ending of the movie is perhaps one of the most genuinely melancholic moments in modern cinematography. Simply brilliant. Superb music! This movie should be watched several times to be fully appreciated.

Although mellowed by a narrative through the eyes of an adolescent, Malena is a movie that attempts to critique the savagery inherent in the 'civilized' society of men. Through the story, the viewer is shown the cruelty that people are capable of as a collective unit, with each individual playing a small part. It attempts to lay bare the gross hypocrisy and fragile morals that hide just beneath the surface.

Malena is also a discourse on beauty, and its brutal power. The feverish lust it produces in a man, and the severe and horrible envy in a woman. The viewer's feelings of appreciation for Malena's beauty are slowly overtaken by a feeling of utter despair for Malena's beauty, which is the cause of all her woes.

Technically the film is true to its period - a small Italian village that passes through the crisis of the 2nd World War. The story unfolds through the eyes of a young boy, who carries us along on a journey of lust, love and maturity. We watch helplessly as his innocent perspectives about life are jarred by the realities of society, while he watches helplessly the misfortunes of the beautiful Malena.