2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Claudio Carvalho 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")

Mihnea the Pitbull A credible melodrama, but a totally ridiculous story. However, we should understand it - the movie's pro-soviet propagandistic stance is explicit. Fact is that it's literally IMPOSSIBLE for any missing-in-action Italian (or German, if we come at that) soldier, to have been cutely integrated in the Russian society. The N.K.V.D. was everywhere, and any such foreigner would have been found in a matter of weeks (months, at most), and treated like a spy. The Georgian Butcher was reserving the same fate even to the Russian soldiers who fell prisoners to the enemy: his paranoia dictating that the only explanation for having survived was defection, they were considered by default traitors and sent to the Gulag. So, our poor Mastroianni here, far of happily living ever after with Savelieva, would have been deported to Vorkuta or Ekibastuz, as a spy, for 10 years (or, rather, 25 - these being the standard imprisoning terms). After being released (in case he survived the abuses of the extermination camps), he would have been forced to live in exile (forced domicile), still in some village of Siberia or the Central Asia deserts. No way in hell for him even to travel in some other Russian township, close by - while the idea of coming back to Italy for a visit is as ludicrous as sending him to Mars.But, well, Guerra wrote the script before Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" was published, so he can be excused for being so ignorant about the Russian realities.

richbh There are few scenes more moving or more powerful than the scene where Sophia meets her husband in Russia.The scene is at a train station: he's on the arriving train and she's waiting on the platform. A huge number of people get off the train and she's looking at everyone through the chaos of moving bodies. She doesn't really expect to find him, but hope is still alive.She sees him through the throng, he sees her.The wordless communication between them as she gets on the train to leave and he stays on the platform watching her go is nothing less than thrilling. It's a great cinematic moment - a great moment of acting for Loren.It is, perhaps, the single scene for which I shall always remember her.

syui The director Vittorio De Scica directed one of the best films depicting the tragedies and sorrows of those involved in wars against their will. Both Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni were superb in performing their respective roles as commoners living a peaceful life and who had their destiny changed all of a sudden into misery and agony. This film may be rated one of the best antiwar movies in the 20th century. I have seen this picture on my own DVD many times and each time I am deeply touched by the story. The most impressive scenes of the film are Sophia Loren's reunion with her husband who was now living a seemingly happy life with a Russian woman who had saved his life --- the reunion which was just the beginning of her tragedy. The outstanding script and the direction of De Scica as well as the superb acting of both Sophia and Marcello render "I Girasoli" a masterpiece in Italian realism in cinematography.