Divorce Italian Style - Criterion Collection (1962)

Absolutamente, Si. . .

I purchased the other version a few years before the Criterion one came out. This is obviously more superior above and beyond the quality. It was cool to re-discover this movie. If you have other versions, you don't have the whole flick. This is worth it. July 3, 2008

Joy, Italian Style.

I was amazed that a movie first released in the early sixties remains as non-dated in its perspective and humor as this one does. I picked it up chiefly due to a reference Scorsese makes to it in A Personal Journey. Certainly, Divorce Italian Style is a farce but the emotions and events it contains are ones with which all of us can relate--even though none of us have a need for a Italian "divorce." One also can appreciate the mystique which European films had--as compared to the more stodgy state of American cinema--during that period. I've always loved Marcello Mastroianni and his efforts here are outstanding. He plays his role perfectly and is a figure of both contempt and admiration. All of the acting, however, is great. The plot unwinds slowly but does not end predictably (on the whole). The climax is nuanced and the last frame tells us much about the nature of men and women. September 29, 2007

Divorce, Italian Style

Germi's wry, black-comedic satire on Italy's outmoded marital laws (divorce was illegal there in the '60s) and culture of machismo was a triumph for the writer-director and his leading man, both of whom picked up Oscar nods. Mastroianni, delivering one of his finest comedic performances, carries the film from first frame to last, almost Keatonesque in his deadpan mannerisms. Originally conceived as a hard-hitting drama (Germi's specialty at the time), "Divorce" delves right into the issue at hand--women--with a devilish, socially biting sense of humor, such as the farcical fantasy sequences where Fefe imagines offing Rosalia in inventive ways. If "Divorce" was always this much fun, who'd be married? June 27, 2007

Actually Sicilian style

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." January 4, 2007

Murder, He Thought

What would you do if you've been married for many years, lost any romantic interest in your less than attractive wife, and fell in love with a beautiful young girl? Divorce, you'd say but there is one thing, you see - in Italy in 1960s there were no divorce. So, once again, what would you do? Made forty five years ago about an old Italian Law that had declared divorce illegal but would give a minimum sentence for killing a cheating spouse, "Divorce, Italian Style" is hilarious, melancholic, biting, clever, and belongs to the best comedies ever. First, Germi was going to make a tragic film and there are many elements of tragedy in "Divorce, Italian Style". After all, two people who are in love and happy together will be killed because of the strict and unforgiving traditions that made their way into the laws of the country. Pietro Germi directed a movie that is saturated with the merciless boredom, suffocating heat and humidity of a small Sicilian town where seemingly nothing ever happens and where Baron Fete Gefalu leads the life of not so quiet desperation with his wife or 13 years, Rosalia who had bored him to death. To make the things worse, his 16 years old angelic cousin Angela (one look at 16 years old Stefania Sandrelli in her early role and you can forgive or at least understand Fete) just returned from the nun school and he is desperately in love with her. As we know, love moves the sun and the planets and it made Fete's mind invent the plan on how to get rid of Rosalia which was deliciously simple and deadly funny. What Fete did was unspeakable but HOW Marcello Mastroianni played it was one of the greatest comedic performances I've ever seen. To watch his face when he was imagining all sorts of creepy accidents to Rosalia and to hear him narrating the movie was Delight from the opening scene to the incredible and brilliant in its irony final.
January 3, 2007

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