Very Cool!!!

the audience applauded

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

DIVORCE Italian STYLE is a comedy drama about love pains and problems with laws.An impoverished Sicilian nobleman is married with an unattractive but devoted wife. However, he is in love with his, a much younger and attractive, cousin. He lives, besides his wife, with his elderly parents, his spinster sister and her boyfriend. The divorce was illegal in Italy at that time. He has, unsuccessfully, tried to move away from his wife. Perhaps he will try to kill his wife?! A young cousin is so beautiful. He has a very little time to come up with something. A local story of a woman who killed her husband in a rage of jealousy has gave him a great idea...This satirical farce, which includes an affair in a marriage, love for a minor girl and a murder of honor is, in spite of moral transgressions, a very interesting film. Mr. Germi has made a series of wonderful plots, in which he has, in a satirical manner, criticized laws in the Italian society. He has, very imaginatively, combined fantasies with reality. Therefore, the malicious actions of the main protagonist seem quite charming. A happy ending is the culmination of irony.Scenery and music completely correspond with love pains in this film. Characterization is very good.Marcello Mastroianni as Ferdinando Cefalù is a sympathetic and cunning man at the same time. He, perhaps, goes through a midlife crisis. However, his ambitions and plans, which he has prepared with a large dose of elegance and serenity, are quite childish. His character is filled with pathos, despair and longing. Mr. Mastroianni has offered an excellent performance, which is the foundation of a top class entertainment in this film.His support are Daniela Rocca (Rosalia Cefalù) as his boring wife, Stefania Sandrelli (Angela) as his passion, lust and love and Leopoldo Trieste as Carmelo Patanè as his "salvation".This is a very entertaining movie about love torments and...still "natural laws".

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)Divorzio all'italiana is a richly textured satire of Sicilian macho Catholic life styles starring one of Italy's greatest actors, Marcello Mastroianni. He is a bit Chaplinesque in this tongue in cheek exploration of how to dump your wife and marry your 16-year-old cousin. His wide-eyed, dead pan expressions combined with vulnerability and suave, leading-man good looks made him the heart-throb of women for decades. He plays a bored baron stuck with a baroness (played fatuously by Daniela Rocca) that he cannot abide. It should be noted that today it IS possible to get a divorce in Italy, but at the time it was very difficult, perhaps easier to get an annulment, and so we have the premise of the plot.Stefania Sandrelli, who became one of the great ladies of the Italian cinema, plays the cousin. She was only 15 when the film was shot but could easily pass for, say, 18. She is sensual, sweet and a bit naughty. In the final scene, famous for its fitting irony, the last thing we see are her feet. I won't tell you more, but the movie is almost worth seeing just for that final scene.Rocca's Rosalia on the other hand is more syrupy than sweet and would qualify as clinging. She could smother a lumberjack, and although it is not polite to comment unfavorably on a lady's looks, I must note that she seemed to be having a bad facial hair day, everyday. Her impersonation of a country baroness nonetheless was unforgettable. I also liked 16-year-old Margherita Girelli as Sisini, the maid. Her coquettish ways helped to lend a French bedroom farce flavor to the film.But what really makes this one of the great monuments of the Italian cinema is the witty and delightful script by Ennio De Concini (it won an Academy Award in 1962) and the detailed, textured direction by Pietro Germi. The picture that Germi paints of life in a small Sicilian (or southern Italian, for that matter) village is picturesque, much imitated, and indelible. The crowded ornate clutter of the old estate, the sun-drenched streets and the monolithic stone and mason churches haunt our memory. True, the film starts a bit slowly and drags (at least for modern audiences) a bit at times, but don't make the mistake of giving up on this. The latter half of the film is wonderful. And remember, if you had to go to film school, Divorce Italian Style would be on the syllabus.So see this for Mastroianni of course but also because no film education would be complete without having seen Divorzio all'italiana.The Criterion Collection DVD includes a second disc with a documentary on Germi's career, an interview with Ennio De Concini, and screen-test footage of Stefania Sandrelli and Daniela Rocca that I just had to see. There is also a booklet with reviews of the film from Stuart Klawans, Andrew Sarris, and Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's review is adoring and nostalgic since he is from Sicily and since the film had made such a lasting impression on him as a 19-year-old. For him the film was not so much a comedy as a true reflection of a life he and his family had known. He writes, "Every detail in Divorce Italian Style is so truthful and right that all Germi had to do was heighten everything a bit to make it funny."

In my lifetime I have seen about ten to twenty films with Marcello Mastroianni in them, including two made before he made "Divorce Italian Style", but for me the film that imprinted himself to American film audiences was this one. His Baron Ferdinando Cefalo is one of the cleverest homicidal figures in movies, and yet one of the most bumbling. One can say he succeeds despite himself. Set in Sicily, then as now the poorest area of Italy and one of the most backward, the film shows how the Baron is bored by his present wife Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), a good woman but somewhat overwhelming in her unwanted affection. Rosalia is not unattractive (in a lightly heavy manner), but she is certainly not currently able to get more than a mild interest in her husband in whatever she is doing. The Baron is quite interested in his young female cousin Angela (Stefania Andrelli), a vibrant and young woman who is about to go to convent school. Baron Ferdinando would love to marry Angela, but how to get rid of Rosalia? Divorce (as Americans know it) is not liked in Catholic countries, particularly in the most backward sections of them. But the laws of the day in Italy (say about 1955 or so) have a crazy version of the so-called "unwritten law" regarding shooting adulterers...except the Italian version allows for the shooting of the guilty spouse by his or her wronged spouse, and the granting of a relatively light sentence (believe it or not three years!). The problem is that the killer must catch the adulterous pair in their act of guilty passion when they are doing it. And there must be sufficient emotional pressure on the perpetrator to justify a case of sudden homicidal impact. Baron Ferdinando has to orchestrate out of artificial methods the exact situation to enable him to legally kill Rosalia. He presses ahead, and his society is shown for all it's secrets and backwardness.First, he studies up on the law and recent cases, even checking out the grand Italian lawyer with his flowery oratory style who he will use (later on we hear the lawyer's possible future speech describing some of the actions of the Baron as he pursues his dream). Then he has to find a good patsy - who is the other man? Here he finds this fellow is gay, that one is happily married, that one (in the choir) has...well a physical problem. Finally he selects an old friend of Rosalia, a painter from Messena named Carmelo Patane (Leopoldo Trieste). The Baron gives Carmelo a restoration job in his villa (I'm kind when I call his ramshackle home that), and then makes sure that Rosalia and Carmelo are left by themselves a lot.In his way he tries to be modern in this 18th Century atmosphere. He tape records the private conversations of Rosalia and Carmelo to see if they have finally broken down to commit their adultery. This is far more tedious than he hoped, as Rosalia tries to maintain her loyalty to his husband, and Carmelo keeps a major secret from Rosalia. As they break down there is also the problems of the love-sick maid who Carmelo is also attracted to. And as each problem arises we watch the Baron try to figure out how to overcome them.When the crisis arises finally we see the locals at their worst, with the men laughing at the Baron's being cuckolded, but everyone freezing out him and his family because his reaction is to take to his bed. But he is only waiting for the right moment to avenge his honor. When will it occur, or will it ever occur?Italian cinema had been part of the international film language since 1945 with Neo-realism, and masters like Rossalini, De Sica, and (later) Fellini. Some of the films of the 1950s, like the original "Big Deal On Madonna Street", included Mastroianni in the casts, but others (Vittorio Gassman, Toto) were the stars or shared the fun. This film put him on the map for our audiences, with his proper, well dressed, soft-spoken minor aristocrat, with his "tic" (he clicks his mouth when something unexpected or unpleasant occurs around him). With slicked down hair and droopy, trimmed mustache, he looks like a man whose been losing at gambling tables all night at the rate of one lira an hour - no smile, but no real feeling of great loss. It was a memorable dead pan performance. He never quite repeated it (most of his characters were far more lively in their antics), but it stamped itself on American audiences. Soon his series of films with Sophia Loren cemented him into the position of Italy's leading romantic male film figure and great farceur. He never failed to live up to those two views in all of the films he appeared in until his death in 1996.

Imagine the life of Baron Ferdinando Cefalu, an impoverished middle aged man who has fallen in love with his young cousin Angela. In the society of Agramonte, Sicily, of that time, being poor was endurable, but the pangs of love Ferdinando feels in his heart, is consuming him, but his bigger problem is he is married to Rosalia, a woman who truly loves him, or so it seems. What could a man do in Ferdinando's shoes? Nothing, since in the Italy of those years divorce was not allowed, either by the state, or the church.The only possible solution to solve Ferdinando's problems is in trying to kill Rosalia. In the Italian penal code of the times, people could plea guilty in trying to avenge their honor and would get lesser sentences. Rosalia, who has no idea of what's going on, has a secret of her own. Years ago, she had been in love with Carmelo Patane, a man who went to war and on his return found that his beloved Rosalia had already married Baron Ferdinando! It's the Baron, who discovers the letters Rosalia likes to read on the sly, late at night. Ferdinando devises a plan that will bring Carmelo to repaint some of the frescoes of the old palatial home, hoping Rosalia and the painter will try to reacquaint themselves, as it's obvious that even though Carmelo is married, he still loves Rosalia! The Baron, who has bought a tape recorder, and spies on his wife and the painter, knows the end is in sight and gambling on getting a short jail time, goes ahead with his plans. Little does he know what his life with Angela will be like!"Divorce Italian Style", directed by Pietro Germi, was a satire about Italian law that allowed such practices to take place. In a complete Catholic society, people got married for life, literally. Since there was no divorce, couples who found out they were not compatible had to keep on staying married because divorce was not an option. Pietro Germi and his collaborators take a look at how, with some clever research, imagination, and ingenuity, an unhappily married man could get a release from those restricting marital vows.Marcello Mastroianni was perfect as Baron Ferdinando Cefalu. The actor clearly knew this man and the mentality of men like his character. His facial expressions are worth the price of the rental of this wonderful Criterion DVD. Mastroianni, one of the best film actors of his generation gives one of the best performances of his career. Daniella Rocca, who plays Rosalia, makes a great contribution to make this film the winner it is. Leopoldo Trieste, another important figure in the Italian cinema, appears as Carmelo Patane, the painter who never stopped loving Rosalia. Stefania Sandrelli, is seen briefly as the object of Ferndinando's passion and love.The DVD transfer has kept the film black and white cinematography of Carlo DiPalma and Leonida Barboni intact. We can see the sunny Sicilian town in all its splendor as captured by the camera of these men. Pietro Germi, the director and co-writer, delivered a film that is a classic because of the humanity, love and humor that went into this tremendously satisfying work.