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Purely Joyful Movie!

An action-packed slog

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I think Divorzio all'italiana is an all-time masterpiece of movie-making art. It has amazing depth, and an amazing amount of detail. The cinematography, the script, the acting, the music – all wonderful. The thing is just uncanny. Even though my understanding of Italian is limited to maybe a dozen words, I felt drawn to listening to the dialog – listening in order to get whatever meaning I could pick up from the actors' InFlection and InTonation. The actors were just fantastic.The screenplay is a ruthless skewering of post world war 2 Italy, revealing how Italians were becoming fully aware of the changes that were happening in the rest of the world, revealing how they were being affected by them – appearing eager to adopt them, but at the same time suffering from some kind of insidious stagnation resulting from the Italy's interpretation of the mores imposed by the Roman Catholic church – and revealing the problems that resulted from the conflict between change and stagnation. Some of the changes that were referenced, to hilarious effect as they reached stagnant Italy, were rock and roll, men orbiting the earth, and perhaps the most hilarious, the Italian movie released just a short time earlier: La Dolce Vita.Divorzio all'italiana's main character, FeFe, to get the changes he wants in his life, he doesn't try to change the system; he works within the system. He carries out what seems like a rather unlikely strategy, however it is a strategy that works, sort of. In the process of carrying it out, the rot within the system gets exposed, and the humor gets created.In most movies, the music that is used – it is used to tell the audience how the movie makers want the audience to feel about the things that are being said, about the things that are going on, about how the characters must feel. The dialog tells viewers what the the characters Think; the music tells viewers what the movie makers want the characters, and the viewers, to feel about that. It is, in most movies, as if the dialog and the actors need some extra help emoting, so the director calls in the composer to help out. "Now you know how you are supposed to feel about this, audience." This is NOT how the music is used in Divorzio all'italiana. I am not sure I can explain what the music does in Divorzio all'italiana, what it does differently – but the music does something different, and wonderful. I don't think I have ever seen another movie where I enjoyed the music so much, or where it supported the movie and "belonged" to the movie so well. Just another one of the little details that contribute to Divorzio all'italiana being a masterpiece. By the way, for most of the dialog, I needed a translation, but not for the title. I find it hard to believe that there are any speakers of English who couldn't figure out the meaning of "Divorzio all'italiana" without a translation.

This classic Italian film is a comedy that tells the story of Ferdinando Cefalu who is unhappily married for 15 years, but he falls in love with his wife's niece, and he starts a plan to end his marriage and not be criticized by the old and classy Italian society. In the meantime, in order to complete his plan many things happened including funny moments and some dramatic moments. The movie seems to have been very well directed and very well acted and gives us a little hint about the behavior of the Sicilian society. In order to do his plan, Ferdinando chooses a crazy idea, and takes a long time to plan and detail his plan perfectly having a lot of funny interruptions during the process of his plan. Its refreshing to find movies with good sense of humor, and no use of vulgarities or bad language to make the viewers laugh. I really enjoyed it, and i deeply recommend watching it.

Divorzio all'Italiana (1961)is the story of a man's gradual decline,the Sicilian Baron Cefalú who,disgusted with his wife (Daniela Rocca) and her advances,aims at a very young woman's charms,and he finds her in his own household.To be with her,the fretted Baron has to get rid of his boring wife.So,the movie is in the "how to kill your ..." scheme.Good-looking,sly,randy,lithe, almost young,Marcello Mastroianni wants to escape from his marriage's mire;his smoldering passion for the graceful Stefania Sandrelli (here,a teenager) breaks out,after a series of fortuitous encounters with the child:he runs into her in the street, on the beach,in the church.The girl's secret diary confesses that the erotic feelings are mutual.The film records this crescendo,the multiple factors that compete to bring the two hearts together.But Stefania Sandrelli's grumpy father has no respect for privacy,and reads her diary ....Marcello Mastroianni's role as Cefalú is brilliant,staggering, astonishing, much above the sarcastic,shameless story.In his bright 30s and 40s,Marcello Mastroianni,here 37 years old,and one year after The Sweet Life,made several sex comedies (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ; Matrimonio all'Italiana ,1964;Oggi, Domani, Dopodomani ,1965;L'Uomo Dei Cinque Palloni,1965;Casanova '70,1965;A Slightly Pregnant Man,etc.), giving constantly radiant and wonderfully inspired performances that are among cinema's gems.One can not speak about Marcello Mastroianni otherwise than with infinite respect.He belongs to the rank of the greatest film actors ever,on a par with Pierre Fresnay,Louis Jouvet,Michel Simon,Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau,Gérard Depardieu,Erich Von Stroheim ,James Cagney.Now,one word about my favorite actress,Stefania Sandrelli.I admire her since I was 18 years old.Her stunning role as Angela is one of the two definitive expressions of her sexuality (the other being Teresa Rolfe in La Chiave, 1983). Divorce, Italian Style is the sheer definition of the level of showmanship that even the popular Italian cinema reached in the '60s.It evokes the Meridional communal existence ,the family life of a Sicilian baron,and his retreats counterpoise his family life (wife,sister,genitors,etc.).The strength of this brutal and gruesome sex comedy is its low-brow self assurance.Yet,it has a finesse,a cynicism that do not recommend it to the adolescence's mind;it is simultaneously brutal and of a certain fineness,it demands,to be enjoyed,interest for life.The music is languorous and desirous in the first half,and funeral in the second.In Divorzio all'Italiana (1961),the nudity,that is Stefania Sandrelli's ,skimps to a naked spotless shoulder,and her body is more bright,tender and luminous than ever.The erotic run in this movie,the sex race,is symmetrical to the one to be found in another famous Italian sex comedy,Malèna (2000).The barrister is the same,his pleading ,his declamation arise from the same chasm of ridicule.The provincial society is,also,the very same."Divorzio ..." is a more cynical,derisive, biting satire,Pietro Germi is a more brutal and corrosive satirist than Giuseppe Tornatore, and less indignant.Having already done remarkable ,defining roles in The Night ,The Sweet Life ,White Nights ,Chronicle of Poor Lovers,Marcello Mastroianni's role in "Divorzio ..." is a fashioned,vigorous,resourceful and vivid expression of his charm and intelligence.He is drowsy,sagging,bored,he becomes tetchy and devilish,then bewildered,then blasé.At first,he seems an almost entitled,in his exasperation,gentleman,but then,he comes out as a dullard,a rather disgusting profligate,a wanton dolt. Gradually,the philanderer Cefalú looses our sympathy.On its level,this vulgar and lively,fast paced comedy is somehow flawless.But its real value comes from the quality of its two leads. The entire cast is deserving and skilled (Daniela Rocca,Margherita Girelli,Leopoldo Trieste ...),but Marcello Mastroianni and Stefania Sandrelli are,here,at their energies' peak;an early one,for Stefania Sandrelli.I remember Mastroianni dreaming of transforming his wife into soap,or of sending her in space as a laughing Gagarin.Quite fallow jokes,but Marcello Mastroianni gives them force.Daniela Rocca had a short career,only a few movies in the '50s and '60s.Pietro Germi made several interesting movies,the last one is from 1972; he died in 1974.

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.