View all comments (1) - Comment on this review
Divorce - Italian Style Movie Review
Divorce - Italian Style Review
"Divorce - Italian Style" Overview
Rating: NR
1961
Cast and Crew
Director : Pietro GermiProducer : Franco Cristaldi
Screenwiter : Ennio De Concini,Pietro Germi,Alfredo Giannetti
Starring : Marcello Mastroianni,Daniela Rocca,Stefania Sandrelli,Leopoldo Trieste,Odoardo Spadaro,Margherita Girelli,Angela Cardile
What do Freud, Last Year at Marienbad, Through a Glass Darkly, and That Touch
of Mink have in common? No, they're not all films you've never seen, they all
lost the Best Original Screenplay Oscar to Divorce - Italian Style in 1963.
The story is classic black comedy, as Marcello Mastroianni's Ferninando
shuffles through his marriage to the loving -- but smothering (not to mention
homely) -- Rosalia (Daniela Rocca). Ferdinando's wandering eye catches sight of
Angela, his teenage cousin, whom he desperately desires... but as divorce is
forbidden in 1960s Italy, what's he to do? Murder is the obvious answer.
Rather than attempt to get away with it by staging an accident or fake suicide,
Ferdinando devises a convoluted plot to trick Rosalia into falling in love with
another man, then murdering them both "in a fit of rage," knowing that the
courts will allow ultimately such a defense. The bulk of the film concerns his
attempts to trick Rosalia into the arms of another suitor, eavesdropping on
their progress, and ludicrously planning her murder.
It's a black and silly exercise in hilarity, a very dark and twisted comedy
from a director known for a series of dramas (and originally meant as such).
But Pietro Germi's handle on the absurdity of Italian morality is more than
just a delightful goof, it's a biting satire and indictment of Italian
machismo: The notion of Divorce Italian style was extremely real in its era.
Still, for all its comedy and social smashmouthing, Divorce - Italian Style
doesn't carry nearly the punch in today's era of Britney Spears overnight
annulments and weddings arranged on prime time TV. Mastroianni's hangdog look
is timeless, though, and even if you can't quite grok his absurd Rube
Goldbergian system to get rid of his problem, you can definitely feel a piece
of his pain. If not, the least you can do is laugh along with him.
The Criterion DVD adds a second disc of extras: A documentary about Germi,
interviews with the cast, and screen tests of the leading ladies.
Aka Divorzio all'italiana.
|
Review by Christopher Null 
|
screen name:
vschwager 
( 1)
posted on 02/03/2006 12:59
As usual, foreign reviewers of Italian movies miss the point. The beauty of
this particular movies lies with its baroque screenplay, extremely well suite
to the convoluted architectural style of the Sicilian city of Catania. Also
baroque is the method devised by baron Mimi to get rid of his smothering wife
(a former Miss Italy pageant). Unfortunately most of the beauty of the movies
lies also in the language being used which is lost to non Italian speakers. The
movie itself is a parade of extraordinary characters: the defence lawyer
engaged by Baron Cefalu' is the quintessential "Azzeccagarbugli" - the scene at
the trial is a masterpiece of the ironic and comic potential of italian court
houses, the crowd in the trail are captivated by the barrister's speech-even
though most of them have no idea what the hell he is talking about. Some
memorable scenes include the church sermon, the baron cynical murder math, the
baron's daydreaming about the ways he would like to see his wife die.
The movie, however, packs a much more serious message, which is the
discrimination against women, the hipocrisy of the Church, the backward ways
sicilians had to live and the slow pace of progress, a legal system obsolete
and unfair towards women. It makes a very serious statment against the church
and the goverment. The church in Italy has never given any substantial
contribution towards improving social relations, it has fought against the
right to vote and the right to an education. Divorzio all'Italiana takles a
very serious issue by using the only weapon most of the people at the time had:
la commedia dell'arte.
View all comments (1) - Comment on this review
