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DVD Two Women
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
When seen years ago this movie was shocking and wondeful. Unfortunately for those who see it for the first time like this it will not impress them as it is so hard to watch because of appalling quality of reproduction.Sofia gives an incredible and believable performance as the southern Italian peasant trying to survive the last days of the war with her daughter. The rape scene is harrowing. The subtitles are amusing..once it even gave a sub-title when they hadn't said anything!! This movie is really for someone who knows southern Italy well and experienced WW2 (as I did to some extent) and also is fluent in Italian as you would have to be a very quick reader to keep up with the inaccurate subtitles. See it just for Sophia,s magnificent performance!
WAIT FOR A PROPER DVD
This is absolutely the worst DVD transfer of all time. Beware: it's a VHS tape put onto DVD, and what looks like a fourth-generation tape at that. If you haven't seen this incredible film, wait. They'll have to come out with a proper DVD at some point. This one is painful. Please don't support releases like this by purchasing this DVD.
Great movie, horrible DVD
The movie is beautiful, but (as all other reviewers mention) the DVD is almost unwatchable. The image quality is awful, and the subtitles actually are **ridiculously inaccurate** (I AM Italian, so you can believe me...). And I couldn't even turn them off, so even if you speak Italian there is no way you can avoid being bothered by them!! The sound is very poor too. Even for an Italian, it's not easy to follow the dialogues, and it's not because of southern accent, it's just that the sound is awful. But, after all, it's cheap, and nowadays you can't expect a good DVD for such a low price...
Vittorio De Sica's remarkable 1947 drama of desperation and survival in Italy's devastating post-war depression earned a special Oscar for its affecting power. Shot in the streets and alleys of Rome, De Sica uses the real-life environment of contemporary life to frame his moving drama of a desperate father whose new job delivering cinema posters is threatened when a street thief steals his bicycle. Too poor to buy another, he and his son take to the streets in an impossible search for his bike. Cast with nonactors and filled with the real street life of Rome, this landmark film helped define the Italian neorealist approach with its mix of real life details, poetic imagery, and warm sentimentality. De Sica uses the wandering pair to witness the lives of everyday folks, but ultimately he... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lamberto Maggiorani - Enzo Staiola Director(s): Vittorio De Sica DVD Release Date: Released the 24 November 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As a clothing designer, I loved this movie as it inspired a whole line of clothes. If you like Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, then it's a bigger plus! More Info about this DVD Director(s): Anthony Asquith DVD Release Date: Released the 10 April 2001 Special Order
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Sophia Loren is in early bloom in this 1954 comedy, which was released years later (bluntly dubbed) in the U.S. to capitalize on her international success. Sophia plays two roles: Cleopatra, of course, and Cleopatra's double, a slave girl who spends a night impersonating the queen of Egypt. Mugging through this double act is Alberto Sordi, as a visiting Roman bewitched by the queen's lookalike. Rubber-faced Sordi, an enormous star in Italy for decades, looked like a cross between Sid Caesar and Gene Wilder, and his antic personality was given a long leash. One's enjoyment of this brand of Italian comedy depends on a taste for this kind of busy slapstick, a tradition upheld in Italy by Roberto Benigni. The silliness is certainly unpretentious, and at 78 minutes it really can't wear out... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mario Mattoli DVD Release Date: Released the 07 October 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - David Hemmings Director(s): Michelangelo Antonioni DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's most beautiful and powerful film, La Strada was the first film to reveal the range of Guilietta Masina, whose poignant performance as the childlike Gelsomina recalls Chaplin's Little Tramp. The bubbly, waiflike Gelsomina is a simpleton sold to the gruff, bullying circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) as a servant and assistant. Treated no better than an animal, Gelsomina nonetheless falls in love with the brute Zampanò. When they join a small circus they meet Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a clown who enchants Gelsomina and relentlessly taunts Zampanò, whose inability to control his hatred of Il Matto (literally, "the Fool") leads to their expulsion from the circus and eventually to the film's fateful conclusion.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Anthony Quinn - Giulietta Masina - Richard Basehart Director(s): Federico Fellini DVD Release Date: Released the 18 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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