Two Women (1961)

Sophia Loren won a much-deserved Academy Award for her performance in this 1960 classic by neo-realist filmmaker Vittorio de Sica. A last-minute substitute for Anna Magnani, Loren reached deep within her own memories of wartime experiences for her portrait of a widow struggling to survive in battle-scarred Italy along with a teenage daughter (Eleonora Brown). The film begins with both women sharing romantic feelings toward a young man (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a story line disrupted by the ravages of World War II and the horrifying rape of both mother and daughter in a church by Allied Moroccan soldiers. The aftermath of this atrocity finds both characters dealing with even more, varying shades of grief, as the war seems to sap all that they had treasured and leaves them with only the bare bones of their emotional and physical survival. De Sica's capacity to render tragedy both with the starkest of strokes and the most delicate of emotions has never been more impressive than in this film, and Loren's shatteringly honest portrayal is a watershed in movie history. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com essential video

Why, oh WHY!???

Why, oh why is the vast majority of Sophia Loren's Italian movies so cheaply & poorly made? A few have been 're-mastered' but one cannot find
a decent copy of "Two Women", WHICH, I might add, was shown on TCM the other night in Italian w/subtitles, widescreen, beautiful copy!!! Why can't WE buy this???? Is ANYONE listening. Sophia is too talented and beautiful to have her 'native' films languish. She is a LIVING LEGEND!!! June 28, 2008

Two Women

An excellent film with a great performance by Loren. However, this print is terrible. I would not recommend purchasing this edition. March 25, 2008

Rated for the acting, not the quality of the DVD

This is one,powerful film! Sophia Loren delivers the performance that indeed is a watershed of emotions on film.
As other reviewers have said, the character development is extremely well done, and by the time the movie is half over, I felt the drama was realistic, not overly done at all. The bond between mother and daughter is sensitive, caring...all the right stuff.
Loren's acting in this piece was waaaay ahead of it's time, and treats a theme that is now 'chic' in current cinema - the ravages of war.
Where other films might glamorize the topic, this one went all the way in realism. And for that it is an uneasy view.
By the end of the film, one feels completely spent and exhausted.
Warning: Not your 'easy Saturday night light viewing'. February 12, 2008

an unwatchable transfer

I checked this Madacy Entertainment release of Two Women out from the public library. THANK GOD I didn't waste any money on it. This release is just horrible: The transfer is blurry, the sound is poor, the titles are blurry. I jumped ahead a few scenes to see if it was this way throughout the film. Yes, it looks that way. don't waste your time or money. November 7, 2007

Two Women

De Sica's collaboration with screenwriter Cesare Zavatinni ("The Bicycle Thief," "Umberto D") on this absorbing, humanistic story of survival and shattered innocence in war-ravaged 1943 Italy takes the peasant-eye's view of international conflict. Taking a role once intended for Anna Magnani, sex kitten Loren won a much-deserved Oscar for her soulful, hand-wringing performance as a mother trying to shield her devout daughter, memorably played by Brown, from the ugliness of a world in chaotic disrepair. Their scene together in a church filled with marauding Allied "liberators" remains one of the most harrowing of De Sica's career. (Note: currently none of the DVD editions has a reproduction standard worthy of the film, yet in this case the film itself is so strong, we've opted to showcase it anyway-JF.) July 2, 2007

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