Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1961
Divorce Italian Style
Buy Divorce Italian Style now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Divorce Italian Style' is a 1961 Italian drama-comedy film directed by Pietro Germi. The screenplay is by Germi, Ennio De Concini, Alfredo Giannetti, and Agenore Incrocci, based on Giovanni Arpino's novel 'Un delitto d'onore' ('Honour Killing'). It stars Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Lando Buzzanca, and Leopoldo Trieste. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Mastroianni was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Germi for Best Director.
Plot
Ferdinando Cefal (Marcello Mastroianni), a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman, is married to Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), a devoted wife he no longer loves. He is in love with his cousin Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), a 16-year-old girl he sees only during the summer because her family sends her away to Catholic school in the city. Besides his wife, he shares his life with his elderly parents, his sister, and her fianc, a funeral director; the family share their once stately palace with his uncles, who are slowly but surely eating away the remainders of their once rich estate.
Aware that divorce is illegal, Ferdinando fantasizes about doing away with his wife, such as by throwing her into a boiling cauldron, sending her into space in a rocket, or drowning her in quicksand. After a chance encounter with Angela during a family trip, he discovers that she shares his feelings. Inspired by a local story of a woman who killed her husband in a rage of jealousy, he resolves to lead his wife into having an affair so that he can catch her 'in flagrante delicto', murder her, and receive a light sentence for committing an honour killing. He first needs to find a suitable lover for his wife, whom he finds in the local priest's godson, Carmelo Patan (Leopoldo Trieste), a painter who has had feelings for Rosalia for years and was for a time presumed killed during World War II. He also procures the State Prosecutor's friendship with a small favor. The final stage of his plan is to arrange for Carmelo's constant presence in his house, which he achieves by feigning interest in having his palace frescoes restored.
But Carmelo is timid with Rosalia, and she is initially committed to conjugal fidelity. Ferdinando tapes their private conversations and has to ward off the maid Sisina's infatuation with Carmelo. After Carmelo makes a pass at Sisina, she tells the priest, Carmelo's godfather, at confession, who informs her that Carmelo is married with three children, information she relays to Ferdinando. Rosalia and Carmelo finally give in to their passion but the tape of their conversation runs out just as they are arranging their next meeting. All Ferdinando knows is that it will take place the next evening.
Rosalia feigns a headache and remains home while the rest of the family goes to the cinema to see the local premire of 'La Dolce Vita', a film so scandalous that no one wants to miss it. Ferdinando sneaks out of the theatre and returns home, arriving just in time to see Rosalia leaving for the train station. He retrieves his gun to kill her, but arrives at the station just after their train departs. He revisits his plan and the Criminal Code. It defines a crime of passion as executed in the heat of the moment or in defense of one's honor, so he embraces the role of a cuckold.
All along, Angela has been writing Ferdinando to assure him of her undying love for him. Her last letter is misdelivered to her father, who dies of a heart attack upon reading it. At the funeral, Ferdinando is approached by Mrs. Patan, who demands to know what he will do about their situation. After he responds noncommittally, she spits in his face in front of the entire town, which gives him what he needs: an open insult to the family's honor due to his wife's elopement. The local Mafia boss offers to find the lovers within 24 hours, which he does. As Ferdinando goes to the lovers' hideout, he hears Mrs. Patan kill Carmelo. He follows suit and kills Rosalia. At his trial he is defended by the State Prosecutor, who blames the whole thing on Ferdinando's father and his lack of love when raising him as a boy. He spends no more than three years in prison and returns home to find Angela waiting for him.
In the film's epilogue, Ferdinando and Angela are happily sailing at sea. As they kiss, the camera pans down, revealing Angela seductively rubbing her feet against those of the workman piloting the boat.
Cast
as Ferdinando Cefal
* Marcello Mastroianni as Ferdinando Cefal
* Daniela Rocca as Rosalia Cefal
* Stefania Sandrelli as Angela
* Leopoldo Trieste as Carmelo Patan
* Odoardo Spadaro as Don Gaetano Cefal
* Margherita Girelli as Sisina
* Angela Cardile as Agnese
* Lando Buzzanca as Rosario Mul
* Pietro Tordi as Attorney De Marzi
* Ugo Torrente as Don Calogero
* Antonio Acqua as Priest
* Bianca Castagnetta as Donna Matilde Cefal
* Giovanni Fassiolo
* Ignazio Roberto Daidone
* Francesco Nicastro
Release
'Divorce Italian Style' was released in Rome in December 1961.
Reception
When the film was released in the United States, it earned theatrical rentals of $803,666 in 1962 and a further $1,449,347 in 1963 for a total of $2,252,013 in the United States and Canada and was still in release in 1964.
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
|-
| rowspan="3"| Academy Awards
| Best Director
| Pietro Germi
|
|-
| Best Actor
| Marcello Mastroianni
|
|-
| Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
| Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi
|
|-
| Avellino Neorealism Film Festival
| Best Actress
| Daniela Rocca
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| British Academy Film Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film from any Source
|
|-
| Best Foreign Actor
| Marcello Mastroianni
|
|-
| Best Foreign Actress
| Daniela Rocca
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Cannes Film Festival
| Palme d'Or
| rowspan="3"| Pietro Germi
|
|-
| Best Comedy
|
|-
| Directors Guild of America Awards
| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Golden Globe Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Foreign Film Foreign Language
|
|-
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
| Marcello Mastroianni
|
|-
| Italian Golden Globe Awards
| Best Film
| Pietro Germi
|
|-
| rowspan="6"| Nastro d'Argento
| Best Producer
| Franco Cristaldi
|
|-
| Best Director
| Pietro Germi
|
|-
| Best Actor
| Marcello Mastroianni
|
|-
| Best Screenplay
| rowspan="2"| Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi
|
|-
| Best Original Story
|
|-
| Best Production Design
| Carlo Egidi
|
|-
| National Board of Review Awards
| colspan="2"| Top Five Foreign Language Films
|
|-
| Thessaloniki International Film Festival
| Honorary Award
| Pietro Germi
|
|}
Adaptations
In 2008 Giorgio Battistelli adapted 'Divorce Italian Style' into an opera, 'Divorce l'Italienne', which premiered by the Opra national de Lorraine on September 30 of that year with tenor Wolfgang Ablinger Sperrhacke in Mastroianni's role. Battistelli chose to set every female role except Angela for low male voice; sang the role of Rosalia.
References
Buy Divorce Italian Style now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1961