This is a hell of a film about love and hate and leftist politics or for that matter, any kind of 'progressivist' attitude in a world that stubbornly refuses to abandon old destructive ways. I don't think it's in any way inferior to "Seven Beauties" and "Swept Away," just a bit more intellectual and complicated. Of course, the always ridiculous sounding English dubbing of the mostly Italian actors takes too much away from a film like this; I mean this isn't a spaghetti western here. It would've been much better to keep only Bergen and Giannini in English and subtitle the rest of the characters and let them speak their natural Italian. I mean, did they really think mass numbers of Americans were going to see an intellectual film like this? The art-house audience prefers subtitled foreign films anyway. Giannini is his usual excellent self, playing a communist journalist who falls in love with an American (Candice Bergen) and chases her from Italy to San Francisco. Bergen also goes all out for this role in her trademark wonderful understated way that never gets carried away with itself. There are many funny scenes and some that would've probably never been shot in the 'politically correct' film climate of today (the scene where Giannini shows his little girl his penis for example and she tells him another boy's is bigger!). The legendary Giussepe Rottuno did the magnificent cinematography and the music is also brilliant throughout.
3 Reviews
Gripping
bobt14524 June 2011
A review of a young couple's life, in flashbacks, from the beginning in Italy to San Francisco and back, in love, in denial, in the struggle to come to terms with life itself.
Lina Wertmueller's direction dives right to the heart of the angst of love, its feeling of closeness and its opposite feeling of being unable to fully connect, an impossible dream of emotional need clashing with the physical isolation of each.
Candice Bergen and Giancarlo Giannini are particularly magnificent in the violent, extended fight on the night full of endless rain.
Their friends, often seen as groups of faces, provide a Greek chorus of comment, detached and occasionally mocking.
This is yet another terrific reason to keep the VHS player working!
Lina Wertmueller's direction dives right to the heart of the angst of love, its feeling of closeness and its opposite feeling of being unable to fully connect, an impossible dream of emotional need clashing with the physical isolation of each.
Candice Bergen and Giancarlo Giannini are particularly magnificent in the violent, extended fight on the night full of endless rain.
Their friends, often seen as groups of faces, provide a Greek chorus of comment, detached and occasionally mocking.
This is yet another terrific reason to keep the VHS player working!
This is why you don't fight when you're tired.
cindycita7619 June 2003
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILERS
I found this film to be disappointing, even though I like most of Wertmuller's movies. Giancarlo Giannini plays Paolo, a journalist, communist, and male-chauvinist. Candice Bergen plays Lizzy, a pretty feminist who wears the latest fashions, and the two meet during a parade in Italy where a misunderstanding between Lizzy and some Italians becomes violent, and Paolo winds up rescuing her. A bizarre relationship begins between the two, as Paolo makes fun of everything Lizzy seems to stand for--he thinks feminism is silly and he makes fun of the fact that she's a capitalist. Lizzy just thinks Paolo is an ass.
The more she despises him, the more he chases her, even from Italy to San Francisco. He has become a stalker, and it was kind of creepy yet still funny too. There is one scene where he's followed her to a dance club and this really funny 70's song comes on, "Cleopatra." I couldn't help but laugh, the song was really awful. Anyway, I think if this happened today, a woman would have filed for an injunction keeping this guy 50 feet away, but I guess the "drama of the chase" pulled them together. She ends up falling in love with him, of course.
Well, 10 years and one child later, the married couple is stuck in a rut. There is a group of people who act as a Greek chorus, making comments about the couple's relationship and sex life. The women in the group blame the husband, and the men try to brush off the couple's troubles. The point of no return is when Lizzy and Paolo begin to have sex, and Lizzy says to stop because...well... basically, she's bored to tears.
But instead of just being really nonchalant about it and ask if they could try to spice things up, she starts to cry and freak and apparently, their boring sex represents all the male oppression on women, yada, yada, yada, an argument starts, which then builds to a full-blown fight, with both of them running out in the rain, fighting over who is leaving. This is kind of funny too.
Lizzy tries to run away, but of course Paolo chases her, because he just can't leave her alone, and they both finally calm down and come back to their house, where Lizzy tells Paolo that she's going to leave him, but for now, he needs to get some rest because he's got a big day at work the next day. At the end of the film, they are hugging each other, all depressed and what not. That is one screwy drama-driven couple. Obviously they were attracted to one another because they are so different yet both strong willed, so why wouldn't this knock-down, drag-out fight lead to some good make up sex and that would be the end of it? No...instead, the ending is kind of ambiguous, with Lizzy saying that she's still leaving, yet it's obvious they love each other. They should have just gone to sleep instead of trying to have sex first.
They need to see Dr. Phil.
I found this film to be disappointing, even though I like most of Wertmuller's movies. Giancarlo Giannini plays Paolo, a journalist, communist, and male-chauvinist. Candice Bergen plays Lizzy, a pretty feminist who wears the latest fashions, and the two meet during a parade in Italy where a misunderstanding between Lizzy and some Italians becomes violent, and Paolo winds up rescuing her. A bizarre relationship begins between the two, as Paolo makes fun of everything Lizzy seems to stand for--he thinks feminism is silly and he makes fun of the fact that she's a capitalist. Lizzy just thinks Paolo is an ass.
The more she despises him, the more he chases her, even from Italy to San Francisco. He has become a stalker, and it was kind of creepy yet still funny too. There is one scene where he's followed her to a dance club and this really funny 70's song comes on, "Cleopatra." I couldn't help but laugh, the song was really awful. Anyway, I think if this happened today, a woman would have filed for an injunction keeping this guy 50 feet away, but I guess the "drama of the chase" pulled them together. She ends up falling in love with him, of course.
Well, 10 years and one child later, the married couple is stuck in a rut. There is a group of people who act as a Greek chorus, making comments about the couple's relationship and sex life. The women in the group blame the husband, and the men try to brush off the couple's troubles. The point of no return is when Lizzy and Paolo begin to have sex, and Lizzy says to stop because...well... basically, she's bored to tears.
But instead of just being really nonchalant about it and ask if they could try to spice things up, she starts to cry and freak and apparently, their boring sex represents all the male oppression on women, yada, yada, yada, an argument starts, which then builds to a full-blown fight, with both of them running out in the rain, fighting over who is leaving. This is kind of funny too.
Lizzy tries to run away, but of course Paolo chases her, because he just can't leave her alone, and they both finally calm down and come back to their house, where Lizzy tells Paolo that she's going to leave him, but for now, he needs to get some rest because he's got a big day at work the next day. At the end of the film, they are hugging each other, all depressed and what not. That is one screwy drama-driven couple. Obviously they were attracted to one another because they are so different yet both strong willed, so why wouldn't this knock-down, drag-out fight lead to some good make up sex and that would be the end of it? No...instead, the ending is kind of ambiguous, with Lizzy saying that she's still leaving, yet it's obvious they love each other. They should have just gone to sleep instead of trying to have sex first.
They need to see Dr. Phil.
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