Marriage Italian Style

A couple of months back, Ben Mankiewicz sat down with Sophia Loren's son Edoardo to show a night of Sophia's movies. Among them was Marriage Italian Style.

Loren plays Filumena, who at the start of the movie has suddenly fallen ill, much to the distress her long-time lover but not yet husband, Domenico (Marcello Mastroianni, Loren's frequent co-star), who owns a successful bakery in Naples. We then get a flashback to their life together and what led up to this day.

Many years back, during World War II, Filumena was a young woman barely of legal age trying to make a living any way she could, which meant working at a brothel in a capacity I'm sure you can figure out. Domenico shows up there and when the air-raid siren goes off, the two wind up alone together in a non-sexual capacity, and wind up falling in love.

The two begin a love affair that goes through a lot together. Domenico introduces Filumena to his elderly mother, although Filumena can't be seen at the funeral when Mom finally dies. Domenico goes abroad for business -- one assumes he has more business interests than just the bakery -- leaving Filumena to manage the place whenever he's away. Domenico, doesn't marry Filumena because he seems just as interested in having affairs with the various female cashiers. It's when Domenico announces his intention to marry one of the cashiers that Filumena suddenly falls ill.

Filumena is apparently dying, so she wants some respect as a final wish; respect that she can have by dying a married woman. Domenico accedes to this wish; after all, if she does die quickly he can get married to that cashier. Except that it turns out Filumena's illness was a ruse to get Domenico to marry him. She's not on her deathbed, and she's not even ill, getting up to tell Domenico he's been had. So of course he wants an annulment.

And Domenico is well in his legal rights to get that annulment. Filumena, for her part, has one more trick up her sleeve. She's been about as faithful as Domenico, revealing that she's got three sons that she placed with foster mothers, funding them from Domenico's gifts to her. She tells Domenico that one of the sons is his, but there's no way she's ever going to tell him which one. (Who knows whether just one of the sons is his, or if all of them or either none are?) Domenico tries to figure out which son is his, but....

I had actually not seen this one before, and went into it thinking it was a straight comedy since most of the synopses tend to mention it being a comedy. While there are certainly any number of humorous moments, Marriage Italian Style is much more of a drama than a comedy. I think because of that, I have a bit less positive view towards the movie than I would have had if it had been a straight-up comedy.

It's not that the movie is bad; Mastroianni is good and Loren is excellent. The color cinematography is good, deftly showing the poverty of post-war Italy. It's just that the movie came across to me as a bit heavy at times when a lighter touch was called for.

Marriage Italian Style is available on DVD if you wish to watch it.