It's a change from the way she usually walks through demurely, head and eyes lowered. I love how in this clip, we see her giving the entire town the proverbial finger by her strut into the piazza, casual crossing of legs, and waiting for the townsmen to light the cigarette. I present this clip:ĭestitute (as seen by the broken shoes) and having been coerced into cutting off her hair as payment for food, she decides to turn to prostitution for food and income. For Monica Bellucci's performance, she does well in a role without much dialogue, her performance mostly being almost solely action. After having sprained his arm and leg falling from a tree after witnessing the rape, he returns limping to the church, and in a quiet manner, absolves the saint before quickly striking and breaking off the plaster statue's hand in rage that the saint didn't keep to its side of the bargain. His best scenes in my opinion are when he goes to the local church and going from saint to saint, trying to decide which would be the best to light a votive candle for the protection of Malèna. Amazement at first glimpse of Malèna, relief at discovering that the person she gets dressed up to visit everyday is her father, his anger and despair when things start spiralling out of control, and of course, lust. With his great puppydog eyes and semi-broken voice we see all of Renato's feelings. I can not rave enough about Giuseppe Sulfaro's performance. Just give me time to grow up." So he takes revenge against the townspeople in little ways - spitting in the drink of a man who boasts, and urinating in a bag of a woman who calls her a slut. There's an absolutely heartbreaking scene when he spies her crying after the news her husband has died and Renato imagines himself climbing into her room to comfort her with the words "From now on, I'll be by your side. And while we and Renato want to intervene in what he witnesses, we are constantly reminded that he is only a boy and there is little he can do.
We see the story through Renato's eyes, and so while we're given glimpses of humour as he imagines himself as Malèna's hero in via movie roles (Tarzan and Jane, Stagecoach), we're also made witness to the various indignities that she's put through, her ostracisation from the females and harassment from males, her rape by the lawyer she hired to defend her in a divorce case, being beaten and shorn by the women in the piazza after the Allied Forces arrival, and her leaving and eventual return to Castelcuto. The story is essentially a coming of age of Renato - he literally begins to feel himself becoming a man on his first glimpse of Malèna during one of her walks - the director, Giuseppe Trovatore, has indicated that it also serves as an allegory of Italy before, during, and after WWII. This film is beautiful and depressing in so many ways. After news that her husband has died reaches the village, the tensions that Malèna arouses in various parts of the populace reach boiling point, mirrored by the political climate of the time, as Renato looks helplessly on. Everyday as she walks from her seaside home, through the central piazza, to her father's house, Malèna deals with the catcalls and jealous gossip while Renato tries to ride his bike near at various parts of her path. The only people in the entire town on her side are her elderly father who teaches latin at the school, and Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) a shy 12 year old boy for whom Malèna is the ideal woman. When he is sent off the fight in the war, her beauty and aloof manner keeps her separate from the local populace: the men don't hide their desire for her which enrages the women. In 1941, Maddalena Scordia, known simply as Malèna, arrives in Castelcuto, a small town in Sicily, the new wife of a local lieutenant. Spoilers abound in this review, so watch out!!! These two were united as I watched the 2000 movie Malèna. I've written before about how I love Monica Bellucci in a totally lesbian way as well as my hopelessly inept attempt at learning italian.