I love this movie so much

This is How Movies Should Be Made

The Worst Film Ever

Really Surprised!

the film of chemistry between two great actors. used in brilliant manner by De Sica in a film about love, hope and truth. but the chemistry is more large. the splendid images, the inspired music, the force of humor, the war in different perspective, the absence of precise details who transforms the story in an universal one. and the message who remains touching at each new view. not the last - the status of bridge between West and East in middle of Cold War. sure, propaganda. sure, it is not an isolated case. but the fresh Russian air is one of the basic ingredients who transforms the film in a kind of evergreen. because it is one of that small pieces who sustains a large building. Loren, Mastroianni and De Sica. and large images with sunflowers. that is it.

I just finished watching the stunning Blu Ray of the original Italian English-subtitled version of this film--the best version available. I do not understand all the naysayers reviewing this film. If you are a fan of Loren and Mastroianni, if you are a fan of DeSica, if you enjoy a good old-fashioned melodrama that will tear at your heart, you MUST see this film! To dismiss this film as Soviet propaganda, or as unrealistic, is like criticizing "The Little Mermaid" for having a singing mermaid and talking fish. It utterly misses the point. This movie contains one of the very best, if not THE best Sophia Loren performance on film. Henri Mancini's score is unforgettable. This film makes you care about the plight of both characters. It is available as part of the new "Sophia Loren Collection" box set, and for me, this, along with "Marriage Italian Style," is the "jewel" of the set. See it!

As someone has pointed out the quality of the print on DVD is dire, truly washed out something like third or fourth generation, but even that can't dim the lustre of this truly fine movie which, unacountably, was blasted by the critics on its release. Okay, it is fair-to-maudlin but so what, it has a great central performance by Sophia Loren that puts her up there with Garbo, Davis, Crawford, both Hepburns and that is THE pantheon if anybody asks you. One can only imagine how ravishing some of the scenes would look in anything even approaching the true colour in which they were shot and Hank Mancini lays a great theme on us which resounds even more for lack of a lyric. If it really was De Sica's swan song it's a real trumpeter swan.

De Sica's grand neo-realist touch is hardly evident in this meandering tearjerker, whose performances far surpass the material. This USSR/Italian co-production is lovely to look at, though, and Mancini hit all the right notes while composing the love theme (which, by the way, was a concert standard of his).