1961 ‘Divorzio all'italiana’ Directed by Pietro Germi
Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.
Marcello Mastroianni Daniela Rocca Stefania Sandrelli Leopoldo Trieste Odoardo Spadaro Margherita Girelli Angela Cardile Lando Buzzanca Pietro Tordi Ugo Torrente Antonio Acqua Bianca Castagnetta Giovanni Fassiolo Ignazio Roberto Daidone Francesco Nicastro Edy Nogara Renato Pinciroli Daniela Igliozzi Laura Tomiselli Saro Arcidiacono Renzo Marignano Bruno Bertocci Pietro Fumelli Alba Maiolini
Divorţ în stil italian, 이혼 - 이탈리언 스타일, Divorț italian, Divorce à l'italienne, Skilsmässa på italienska, Scheidung auf Italienisch, Divorcio a la italiana, Развод по-итальянски, Divórcio à Italiana, Rozwód po włosku, イタリア式離婚狂想曲, Διαζύγιο αλά Ιταλικά, Развод по италиански, Divorci a la italiana, Rozvod po italsku, Scheidung auf italienisch, Avioero italialaiseen tapaan, גירושין נוסח איטליה, Razvod na talijanski način, Válás olasz módra, 이혼: 이탈리언 스타일, Divorț în stil italian, İtalyan Usulü Boşanma, Розлучення по-італійськи, 意大利式离婚
France
Cannes Film Festival
ItalyT
USA
USSR
USSR
Netherlands6
France
Italy
Netherlands
USA
USSR
Pietro Germi is one of my favorite directors. He casts comedy so well, it’s so ridiculous and hilarious. The schemes and stakes and reveals in his movies are always so fantastic. Need to watch more from this team.
I loved this film, such an incredible critique of Italian social mores, of old versus new morality, of the suffocating nature of small town southern Italy. Funny and incisive, with probably Mastroianni's best performance. Black humour at the service of serious issues - gendered double standards, class, even influence of the Mafia - blended with some pretty radical filmmaking, with dream sequences, documentary-style introductions, etc. Capped off with one of the all time great final shots. Most likely a masterpiece.
Dial C for Cuckold
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tic... tic... tic...
Mastroianni's reptilian facial tic is worthy of Peter Sellers and Chuck Jones. Great character writing invites the audience to walk a thin line between disdain and empathy for this utterly pathetic bastard.
Delicious. Nails each aspect of its critique and boy, is its critique multifaceted. What feels unique about Divorzio all'italiana is that 1) it presents its criticism in an effortlessly light-hearted manner and 2) that it tears down the prestige of the 'Italian rich macho persona' from the very inside: by narrating the story from the viewpoint of one of its representatives.
Mastroianni's Don Fefé is so full of himself and his immaculateness as a man that he sees the world and how the world perceives him from his own pompous, Fefé-tinted glasses. He projects his fantasies onto the audience through long-winded monologues that place his own infallibility at the core of his worldview. He remains blind to the fact that…
I was expecting Divorce Italian Style to be much more focused on satire surrounding Ferdinando's attraction and "love" for his child cousin Angela and be more of a commentary against pedophilia and the absurdity of Ferdinando being so disgusted with his wife for the horrible crime of being too loving and having a unibrow (The Heartbreak Kid style), but instead it's a satire on extremely conservative and hypocritical Sicilian society (his cousin's very young age and his wife's lack of bad qualities is definitely still commentary it's just not the focal point). It took me a little while to adjust to the actual subject matter the film was tackling, and I found the first half of the film pretty spare…
Pietro Germi was smart. The joyful and quick direction used for introducing the Sicily of the 60s presents a whole society as a context, and the incomparable Mastroianni in his most iconic performance yet. It is a superb satire sprinkled with dark humor throughout, something not quite well received by then, but very appreciated now. For once, the Academy noticed the difference between a well elaborate screenplay and their toilet.
97/100
Spoilers ahead.
Divorce Italian Style is perfect.
A perfect sending up of machismo and masculinity; a perfect evisceration of Catholic morality.
A perfect central performance, and the most perfect of endings.
Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni) wears a cloak of upper class respectability. Despite being financially down on their luck, his family nevertheless hold considerable prestige in their Sicilian town, prestige of which Ferdinando effortlessly proves himself worthy. He dresses impeccably, greets his neighbors and admirers with just the right mix of haughtiness and generosity, and treats his wife with the respect any chivalrous man should.
Behind closed doors, however, things are fraying. Not only is his extended family constantly at odds, but Ferdinando has tired of Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), his…
A movie called Divorce Italian style starring Mastroianni with a pedo stache and slicked back hair, infatuated with a 16 year old nun.......Who’s also Plotting to murder his wife who happens to have a very sexy stache and a unibrow.......will be a movie I would hold close to my heart forever. Fun Italian cinema never disappoints.
Divorzio all'Italiana is a ferocious satire on southern Italy obsolete values and laws, constructed and perpetually stoked by hypocrite religious morals, which are causes of many problems and controversies to this day in the country (especially regarding abortion, euthanasia and gay rights).
The movie is filtered by the lenses that the main character, Ferdinando, a Sicilian baron, uses to see and process the world: a world in which he is the one who should have everything his heart desires, his narration is obviously unreliable, we see his wife as ugly, while really she isn't, and the object of his passion, a sixteen years old girl, as a temptress, eager to be with him, when in…
If I could only watch Classic Italian films on an endless loop for the rest of my life - preferably in black and white and starring Marcelo Mastroianni - then I would go to my eternal rest with a contented smile on my face..
ugh such biting satire!! i have been starved of mastroianni recently and he’s so deliciously unhinged in this film—all that nonsense with the tape recorder and that bit where his mother is begging him to eat something while he’s in another room scarfing a whole loaf of bread, it kills me. i also love that the whole plot hinges around the entire town (including marcello) going to go see LA DOLCE VITA on opening night. fellini corrupts!
