SnoopyStyle
It's WWII. Cesira (Sophia Loren) flees Rome away from the allied bombing for the sake of her 13 year old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). She's a widow of a loveless marriage and she's the object of everyman's desire. They go back to Cesira's home village. The idealistic anti-Fascist Michele Di Libero (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls for her. Mussolini is imprisoned and Michele is overjoyed. They even help a couple of English soldiers. The situation deteriorates as the war closes in and food becomes scarce. A group of Germans force Michele to lead them back to their lines. As the Americans approach, the villagers clear out. Cesira decides to go back to Rome on their own. They take shelter in a bombed out church where they are both raped by a large group of Arab soldiers.Sophie Loren is magnetic. She powers every scene. Eleonora Brown does a good job keeping up. The story meanders a little. There are a lot of unrelated things that pop up. All of a sudden, there's a Russian deserter. The randomness sometimes help the story. When the story moves to the German occupied town, it really starts to move. The tension gets ratcheted up higher and higher.
rowmorg
We're suckers for this Italian realist style, which is another word for Communist film-making. We also love all the great films it has produced around the world in the last 60 years, although needless to say, not in the USA. La Ciociara is a novel written by the immortal Alberto Moravia, who was a Communist MEP for the last dozen years of his life.His story, as interpreted by pioneer film-maker Vittorio De Sica, is told from the point of view of Cesira, an uneducated widow (Sophia Loren, in her Oscar-winning role), who inherited a grocery from her older husband. She admits to her lover: "I did not marry my husband, I married Rome!" The world war is happening and her shop is bombed out by the invading Allies (although it hardly matters by whom). She flees the city with her only child Rosetta, 12 (Eleanora Brown, really 12, who only made a couple more pictures before disappearing from film records). The pair have various adventures trying to reach the Signora's home village, during which the film-makers adroitly illustrate the civil war within the European war, within the world war.Communism is represented, a trifle improbably, by Jean-Paul Belmondo, but the Parisian lothario acquits himself quite well in the role, even acting out the wish-fulfilment of the public and piling on top of Cesira to get a load of that fabulous bust and those magnetic lips, for as long as she will allow, because Cesira is a very feisty lady.The film is suffused with a love of the people, and portrays their daily life in the country affectionately, along with the disruption and misery caused by war. In a memorable scene, a stunned young mother whose child has been killed, offers her nipple in public, saying: "Does anyone want my milk?" This is a foreboding of what is to come, for as the third reel progresses disaster befalls both Cesira and Rosetta, a story feature that has been liberally revealed all over this board, but which I will refrain from blabbing about.This film obeys all the classic rules: the heroine struggles against all odds, even total disaster, and somehow triumphs in the end, even if her victory looks pyrrhic. Ultimately, it is not, for we know that victory will ensue and even the awful sufferings of war will be alleviated, peace will heal the wounds, and Cesira and her lovely daughter will eventually thrive.Many things combine to make this a brilliant picture: the profound political commitment of the film-makers, the genius of Moravia, the brio of Sophia Loren in her greatest part, the love of Italy and its inhabitants. Suffice it to say that when the film began we were horrified by the quality of the print, but even in semi-visible monochrome, the passion still came through. This is one for the classics shelf, to view again and again --- when they come up with a decent print!
LeRoyMarko
Very bad print (even on DVD), but very good movie. A war film that focuses more on the people who suffer, instead of telling the story of those fighting the battle. It's also a movie about love, relationship, bonding between a woman and her daughter. Sophia Loren's performance is stellar. Belmondo is also very good. Young Eleonora Brown's performance gets better during the film. The last 30 minutes of the movie are poignant. It's heartbreaking to listen to Cesira apologize to Rosetta. Watch it.Seen at home, in Toronto, on February 19th, 2006.81/100 (***)
