Marriage Italian Style (1964)

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A film of surprising depth, with an excellent performance from Sophia Loren. I was really quite taken with the film, which is more drama than comedy, and about an unequal love affair between Loren and Marcello Mastroianni over a couple decades. Loren loves Mastroianni, but he sees their relationship more as a transaction: he gives her money, gets her out of prostitution, and gives her a place to stay; she gives him sex, keeps his house, runs his bakery, and takes care of his elderly mother. Meanwhile, he travels the world and sees other women. The tragic imbalance hits us right in the heart, and is heightened by Director Vittorio De Sica's storytelling, which is with a light touch, and uses flashbacks to gradually fill us in on the past, and just how unequal things are. Mastroianni is a bit of a villain here, but we hardly know it at the beginning, and De Sica lets the viewer connect the dots as the movie progresses. We can see the pain in Loren's face and read her mind, and often that's enough. The way the characters express themselves, the scenes in the streets of Naples - it all seems perfectly realistic, and a slice of life. The touches of comedy and lightness that are present balance out the story well. Better than 'Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow', and on a par with 'Two Women'. What an extraordinary interval of time this was for Loren and De Sica.

When Filumena Marturano arrives home looking very very sick, close to death, everyone gets shouting, very worried and then send for Domenico Soriano, her lover. He comes to her deathbed, thinking that this is the last time he will see her, after more than twenty years of relationship...From that moment we have a very funny and quite accurate view of how relationships may work. It all starts maybe a little bit slow, but don't worry, because the movie is full of twists, surprises, fights and a great interpretative duel between Loren and Mastroianni. Everyone does an amazing job, but this is Loren's show, and she shines throughout it, from the poor and scared girl to the mature woman she becomes.It is all a little bit old fashioned in cinematography and direction, but this is a movie where what matters are the actors and the dialogues, and it delivers. On top of that, it is a small piece of information about twentieth century Italy.Well worth watching.

First of all I think the naming of the movie was rather irrelevant... "Marriage Italian Style"! Well it was about everything but Italian style marriage. They named it after the great "Divorce Italian Style" to lure audience into cinema but that's not really important. It was a descent movie despite the Very flat opening, cheesy flash backs, Not so great performances but overall probably because of chemistry between Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni it turned out to be a memorable romance drama movie which doesn't hurt to watch but not essential. I can't think it could be better than this because the potential was very limited in first place. For what it was, it was a good NOT AWARD WORTHY movie.

Sophia Loren was the greatest actress of her generation when directed by Vittorio De Sica. Watching "Marriage Italian Style" in 2009 confirms that notion, totally. She is mesmerizing in this tragicomic creation by the great Neapolitan author Edoardo De Filippo. We manage to travel away from her external beauty, not an easy thing to do, and dive into her interior beauty and Oh God, how extraordinary! She is beyond truthful, she transforms the most basic element in a woman's heart into pure undiluted art. I was surprised to realize what a villain Domenico Soriano (Marcello Mastroianni) was. And he is the romantic counterpart! Here is where the Italians excel. What a terrifying act of self examination. The Italian male, as written by De Filippo, directed by De Sica and interpreted by the amazing Mastroianni is an everyday, almost acceptable monster in a society that breathes this kind of monster. Strange watching this now, Italy then, as far as women were concerned, were not that far away from a Muslim country. Women's role was basically subservient and a character like Mastroianni's could forge ahead un-accused and unrepentant. Besides the magic of the storytelling and the incredible performance by La Loren, this is is an excruciating document of its day.