Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)
(Ieri, oggi, domani)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: Technicolor/Techniscope 118m
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni
Synopsis:
Three tales in which Loren is cast in various versions of her 'force of nature' persona. In 'Adelina' she is a Neapolitan housewife obliged continuously to have children in order to escape prison for selling black market cigarettes. In 'Anna' she plays the frivolous wife of a Turin industrialist who is on the verge of an affair when it becomes clear that her Rolls is more important to her than the adventure she claims to crave. And in 'Mara' she is a high-class prostitute on the Piazza Navona who turns the head of a young seminarist next door, and keeps waiting her desperate civil servant client from Bologna. In all, Mastroianni is the more or less frustrated lover.
Review:
A terribly indulgent portmanteau piece in the style of Boccaccio '70, with the latter pair of segments penned by Cesare Zavattini, but showing little of his finesse in devising a satisfying story arc. That said, Mara is undoubtedly the most successful - and sexy - of the trio, saving for last its celebrated interrupted striptease by the star, who has never looked more divine. Her flair for light comedy is fully in evidence here, as is her direct appeal to the heart, but as so often the stories are ever so inconsequential, and Mastroianni as her foil is reduced to overplaying everywhere except in the insubstantial Anna.
(Ieri, oggi, domani)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: Technicolor/Techniscope 118m
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni
Synopsis:
Three tales in which Loren is cast in various versions of her 'force of nature' persona. In 'Adelina' she is a Neapolitan housewife obliged continuously to have children in order to escape prison for selling black market cigarettes. In 'Anna' she plays the frivolous wife of a Turin industrialist who is on the verge of an affair when it becomes clear that her Rolls is more important to her than the adventure she claims to crave. And in 'Mara' she is a high-class prostitute on the Piazza Navona who turns the head of a young seminarist next door, and keeps waiting her desperate civil servant client from Bologna. In all, Mastroianni is the more or less frustrated lover.
Review:
A terribly indulgent portmanteau piece in the style of Boccaccio '70, with the latter pair of segments penned by Cesare Zavattini, but showing little of his finesse in devising a satisfying story arc. That said, Mara is undoubtedly the most successful - and sexy - of the trio, saving for last its celebrated interrupted striptease by the star, who has never looked more divine. Her flair for light comedy is fully in evidence here, as is her direct appeal to the heart, but as so often the stories are ever so inconsequential, and Mastroianni as her foil is reduced to overplaying everywhere except in the insubstantial Anna.
(Ieri, oggi, domani)
Country: IT/FR
Technical: Technicolor/Techniscope 118m
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni
Synopsis:
Three tales in which Loren is cast in various versions of her 'force of nature' persona. In 'Adelina' she is a Neapolitan housewife obliged continuously to have children in order to escape prison for selling black market cigarettes. In 'Anna' she plays the frivolous wife of a Turin industrialist who is on the verge of an affair when it becomes clear that her Rolls is more important to her than the adventure she claims to crave. And in 'Mara' she is a high-class prostitute on the Piazza Navona who turns the head of a young seminarist next door, and keeps waiting her desperate civil servant client from Bologna. In all, Mastroianni is the more or less frustrated lover.
Review:
A terribly indulgent portmanteau piece in the style of Boccaccio '70, with the latter pair of segments penned by Cesare Zavattini, but showing little of his finesse in devising a satisfying story arc. That said, Mara is undoubtedly the most successful - and sexy - of the trio, saving for last its celebrated interrupted striptease by the star, who has never looked more divine. Her flair for light comedy is fully in evidence here, as is her direct appeal to the heart, but as so often the stories are ever so inconsequential, and Mastroianni as her foil is reduced to overplaying everywhere except in the insubstantial Anna.