Vittoria De Sica

       Vitorrio De Sica was a fine film director as well as actor in both the drama and comediy genres.  He directed such fun comedic films as "Marriage Italian Style" and "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" both starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroanni in the early sixties.  His best film, though, was not a comedy but a dramatic tragedy concerning the difficulty one Italian woman faces during World War II in Italy in sheilding her young, deeply religious  teenage daughter from the horrors of war.  The movie strikes a very deep chord in the audience because of the utter brutality (both mother are daughter are gang raped) and how they somehow manage to pull their wounded bodies and psyches together again, never to be the same as they were before.  This is De Sica's masterpiece.  No other director could have coached such a moving performance out of mother and daughter in a milieu that turns your stomach.  The mother is played by Sophia Loren in by far her finest role and the daughter is portrayed beautifully by Eleanora Brown  It is a powerful film and should come with a warning that it is not for everyone.  That would be sad, though.  It's a magnificent, though gut wrenching film.

Review posted by: Hoppy

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