Marcello Mastroianni

[charliechaplinfan]

I've seen quite a few films featuring Marcello Mastroianni recently. I started with La Dolce Vita perhaps his best known film. It's very good and I liked him, thought he was a good actor. Since then I have watched Ginger and Fred, Divorce Italian Style and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. It's made me realise that he's not just a good actor but an excellent actor who wasn't afraid of emasculating roles or letting his costar have his/her share of the limelight.

Are there any other fans around here? I'd love to know

[MikeBSG]

I liked him very much in "Big Deal on Madonna Street." I love the casual way he gets on a streetcar after the robbery has fallen flat and pretends to me an injured war veteran (so he can ride for free.)

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just seen Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and I love his role as the husband who has to keep getting his wife pregnant to keep her out of jail. I think he manages he seven times but by that time he's worn out by all the noise and all the children. His wife played by Sophia Loren gains in beauty and strength with each child. The whole Adelina section of that film is so humourous.

I just can't think of any other actor would could carry that role off so well.

[Ann Harding]

Marcello Mastroianni was a superlative actor. He hated typecasting which is why he never worked in Hollywood. He started his career in Italian theatre with no less than Luchino Visconti as director.

I am familiar with Mastroianni's work as French and Italian cinema were closely intertwined after WWII. Many films were Franco-Italian productions and actors from both countries were often cast together. In Italy, they ALWAYS post-synchronised dialogue for their films: so a mixture of different nationalities is never a problem.

I realise that in English-speaking countries Mastroianni's output is only scantily available. But, I can point out some real landmarks in his career:

I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madona Street, 1958) by Mario Monicelli. A fabulous cast for this seminal Italian comedy. Claudia Cardinale's first role.

Il Bell'Antonio (1960) by Mauro Bolognini. After la Dolce Vita, Mastroianni selected on purpose a part that was the total opposite: he is the heir of a Sicilian family who happens to be impotent. A vitriolic look at Italian mores.

Divorzio all'italiana (1961) by Pietro Germi. Another complete change: he is an Sicilian baron trying to kill his wife to marry his youngre cousin.

I Compagni (1963) by Mario Monicelli. I saw this great picture recently at a retrospective. It follows the fate of workers in Northern Italy trying to get better working condition in a wool factory. Mastroianni is a political organiser helping the strikers.

Dramma della gelosia (1970) by Ettore Schola. This film manages to combine a social & potical element with a satire of the Italian society. Marcello is again hilarious as the proletarian turned tramp.

Allonsanfan (1973) by P. & V. Taviani. The film takes place shortly after the Napoleonic wars in Italy. Marcello is trying to recover a normal life after years of emprisonment as a political activist.

Una Giornata Particolare (1977) Ettore Schola. great great picture after fascist Italy. By a funny coincidence, it's broadcast tonight on French TV! Can't wait to see it again....

La Pelle (1981) L. Cavani. This really strange feature takes place in liberated Naples after WWII where all sorts of strange trafic take place...I haven't seen it in years but I still remember some scenes very vividly. Beware, it's a disturbing picture!

La Nuit de Varennes (1982) Ettore Schola. We are in the carriage that follows the escape of king Louis XVI during the French revolution. Mastroianni is an aging Casanova. A very good picture.

Che ora è? (1989) Ettore Scola. Marcello is the father of Massimo Troisi and comes to pry in his son's life. A brilliant confrontation between two marvellous Italian actors.

Well, I hope it gives all of you some desire to know this actor better!!!

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks for the list of films to look out for

There are two titles available here. La Grande Bouffe and Sunflower . Have you ever seen these?

It's fascinating to read about the collaboration between the French and Italian film industries. Also of Marcello's indifference to going to Hollywood, Hollywood would have type cast him no doubt into the 'latin lover' mould.

[Ann Harding]

La Grande Bouffe is a very stange Marco Ferreri picture where a group of middle-aged men decide to eat until they die. Frankly, it's not my cup of tea. It's very disturbing.....It's got a great cast though!

I have never seen I Girasoli (1970). I just know it was a film shot in Russia with Russian actors.

I forgot to tell you that Mastroianni spoke French extremely well. He lived in Paris for quite a number of years and made some French pictures. When he died, the French newspaper Le Monde had a very sweet cartoon on its front page where he was holding the giant breast of Marianne (the symbol of the French republic) which was a Anita Ekberg lookalike...

[myrnaloyisdope]

No love for 8 1/2? He's great in that as well, although it's not for everyone's tastes.

[Ann Harding]

You're right Mlid! I didn't mention this one as well as 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita or Marriage Italian Style because they had been mentioned before. But I DO love them.

[charliechaplinfan]

I have 8 1/2 I should spurr myself to watching it.

Has anyone else here seen Ginger and Fred? It was made in the 80's by Fellini and stars Guilette Masina and Mastroianni. It's a bit of an oddity but it's one of the few films about old people, in this case old people who used to have an act impersonating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I thought it very good.

I'd read that Marcello never cared to learn English, he was quite happy making Italian and French films. It could have been his excuse to hold off the American studios.

[MikeBSG]

I had forgotten he was in "La Nuit de Varennes." That was a very good movie. Harvey Keitel was in it as Tom Paine, Hanna Schyguylla was in it as was a French actor who had been in "Children of the Paradise." This was one of the best movies I've seen about the French Revolution.

He was also in "Dark Eyes," which came from the late 80s and was directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. The movie dealt with a 19th Century affair between an Italian man and a Russian woman. Not one of Mikhalkov's best films ("Unfinished Piece for Player Piano" and "Burnt by the Sun") but well worth a look.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just been watching Marcello in Marriage Italian Style. He plays one of unsympathetic characters in this film. There's a key moment in the film when he finds out that he has been tricked into marriage by Sophia Loren, he's telling his other woman she'll be dead soon only to have her come up behind him and tell him otherwise. His reaction is superb.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I watched with great pleasure Una Giornata Particolare (1977). Ettore Schola doesn't shy away from the nasty atmosphere of fascist Italy in 1938. Adolf Hitler has come to visit Mussolini (couldn't help thinking of Chaplin & Jack Oakie in The Great Dictator! ) in Rome and the whole Italian population gets dressed up for the 'wonderful' event. In a big apartment block, Antonietta (Sophia Loren) has got up at 5 am to prepare clothes and food for her 6 children and her nasty husband. She won't go to the meeting as she has to scrub, iron, cook and clean. In the deserted building, she meets one of her neighbours Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni) who hasn't gone either to the fascist parade. Under his influence, Antonietta will acknowledge the emptiness of her life as a housewife in the awful macho environment of fascist Italy...
I had not seen the film in years. I had forgotten the wonderful use of mute colors, almost sepia throughout the film. Schola offers an unvarnished look at Italian society under Mussolini: you have to conform to the standard of the Fascists! a man should be a father and a soldier while women have to stay at home and slave away for their husbands. The two main characters are both castaways. She is a housewife and he is a homosexual. The film is very much a chamber piece; a long dialogue -but not at all static- between Loren and Mastroianni. If you think that you know them after watching them in their comedies. Well, think again! In this film, there isn't any glamour whatsoever and both parts call for complex and dramatic performances. Loren wears a worn out dress, no makeup and looks dowdy, but still glorious in her performance. Same with Mastroianni who pulls up a very subtle characterisation, deprived of any caricature. A superb picture!

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Una Giornata Particolare. I agree with the above review. I've only watched Mastroianni and Loren together in their comedies, this film shows what both actors can do if given the right script, they both give extremely powerful performances, for my part I sympathised so much with Sophia, she adores Mussolini but has to stay hime, she has too much to do, Marcello's character is somewhat distant but playful. This is one of the maturest pieces of cinema I've ever watched.

Both characters are downtrodden, both characters are held down by the masculine, fascist regime. Everyone else in the apartment block goes to the parade apart from Loren, Mastroianni and the landlady who hates Mastroianni and displays the hatred that is present in some of the human race, the hatred that makes some of us persecute one another.

It's so subtle. Mastroianni was comtemplating suicide before Loren turned up at his door trying to get her pet bird back, she must get back to her housework but is drawn to staring at his flat watching him. He visits her to lend her a book. He looks around the apartment. He finds a quote in her album about Mussolini that says 'Men must be husband, father or soldier. Mastroianni is none of these They gradually learn about one another and are at odds with one anothers beliefs. Loren is an avid fan of Mussolini and once fainted when she saw him in the flesh but she is uneducated and her husband. makes her feel inferior. Mastroianni is educated and lonely but persecuted for his sexual preferences and his non conformance to the fascist party. She rescued him at his most vulnerable, he reaches out to her. At first she isn't willing and scared of what might happen between them.

Loren doesn't understand his sexuality at first and wants him to seduce her when that doesn't happen, confusion arises, she slaps him storms off and he goes back alone to his flat. She regrets her hasty action and goes to his flat to make amends they share dinner, probably the only meal she's eaten that she hasn't made herself, she accepts him for who he is, she tells him of her lonliness, he comforts her. Then in one of the most subtle and mature love scenes ever put on screen he allows her to seduce him. Two mature actors, I'm guessing they are in their forties, Loren has no makeup throughtout this film, yet it is very moving, they are very beautiful.

The two of them are far better than the world that they are living in. The uglines that is the tower block,the ugliness which is the regime they live in. They touch each others lives very deeply.

It also allows the viewer a glimpse of fascist Italy and the fervour that surrounded Mussolini, the laws that he brought in and the society that was willing to tell on it's fellow man.

The bravery of this film and the sensitivity that is given to the characters make this film certainly amongst the best films of the seventies.

It is the best film I've ever seen that deal with maturer love and the complexity of relationships. Loren's portrayal of the carnal and longing side of her character is refreshing and something hardly ever seen in Hollywood films. It's so nice to see 'maturer love' on screen. When I say maturer love I don't mean to cause offence to anyone, I guess in my terms of cinema maturer love classes as anyone over 35.

[Ann Harding]

I am really really happy to read your review, Alison!
Italian cinema is extremely rich, touching all sorts of subjects, political, social and moral. Schola is a great director. In those years, he made some pretty amazing pictures. Like Monicelli, he looks at Italy under every angle.

[charliechaplinfan]

The filmmaker and actors certainly touched a cord with me. I've always been lucky with Italian cinema, I've had a knack of finding filmsor being pointed in the direction of films I really like , I've not viewed any duds. Italian cinema has a rich vein of cinematic gold running through it.