Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow/Ieri, Oggi, Domani (1963) - De Sica and stars triumph with sexy smash

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Gorgeously painted and colored situations from the film are highlighted on this delightful poster for Vittorio De Sica's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A three-story anthology: A Neapolitan mother is to be imprisoned, if she won't stop birthing children. A rich and superficial star. And a passionate couple nearly steer a young man into decline.

 

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is written by Eduardo De Filippo (Frisky/Pane, Amore e Gelosia (1954)), Isabella Quarantotti (Kiss the Other Sheek/Oggi, Domani, Dopodomani (1965)), Billa Billa (Ragazze d'Oggi (1955, actor)) and Cesare Zavattini (Woman Times Seven (1967)), with one segment adapting a novel by Alberto Moravia (Il Disprezzo/Contempt (1954)), and directed by Italian master filmmaker Vittorio De Sica (Rose Scarlatte (1940)), whose 18th feature it was. The title is a literal translation of the original Italian title.

Giuseppe Rotunno's (Red Sonja (1985)) photography dwells on the Italian beauty in three stories that are a perfect combination of sweetness, bittersweetness and desire. Sophia Loren (Io Sono il Capataz (1951)) and Marcello Mastroianni (I Grandi Peccatori (L'Eterna Catena) (1952)) are ravishing and seem as divinely meant for each other. - The film is a far cry from the corset of neorealism that De Sica championed in his earlier masterworks such as Bicycle Thieves/Ladri di Biciclette (1948), the ultimate one.

Armando Trovajoli's (Mario, Maria e Mario (1993)) music is beautiful and flirtatious. Is the film a bit dated? Perhaps. And a non-Catholic may also object to the salvaging of the young man in the third story, through his joining the cloth and thereby (stifling, potentially dangerous) celibacy. But these are minor reservations to a glorious film.

 

Related posts:

 

Vittorio De Sica: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970) - An exquisite, painful De Sica WWII love drama

A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite! (co-star)

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 1.5 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 21.75 mil. $ (North America, France, Germany and Italy alone)

= Uncertain but likely a mega-hit (projected return of at least 16.66 times its cost)

[Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow was released 21 December (Italy) and runs 118 minutes. Loren was reportedly paid 500k $ for her performance. Shooting took place in Italy, including in Rome. It is listed as having sold 13.39 mil. tickets across France, Germany and Italy, coming to approximately 12.45 mil. $. Together with its impressive North-American gross of 9.3 mil. $, it should have cleared 21.75 mil. $ in these markets alone. Likely its total gross exceeds 25 and perhaps even 30 mil. $. The film won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, a BAFTA, 3 David di Donatello award, 1/2 Golden Globe nominations and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. De Sica returned with Marriage Italian Style/Matrimonio all'Italiana (1964). Loren returned first in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), and then with Mastroianni in his return also, Marriage Italian Style. 10k+ IMDb users have given Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow a 7.2/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow?

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970) - An exquisite, painful De Sica WWII love drama

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A graphically recreated close-up of a young woman's beautiful face, encircled in autumn-colored leaves, makes up this striking poster for Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

In late-1930s Italy, while the fascists' power and madness escalates, life continues in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, where Jewish Giorgio is in love with his childhood friend Micòl from the wealthy, Jewish Finzi-Contini family.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is written by Ugo Pirro (Ogro (1979)) and Vittorio Bonicelli (Arabella (1980, miniseries)), adapting the same-titled 1962 novel by Giorgio Bassani (The Gold-rimmed Spectacles/Gli Occhiali d'Oro (1958)), and directed by Italian master filmmaker Vittorio De Sica (Rose Scarlatte (1940)), whose 25th feature it was. De Sica, Franco Brusati (Violent Life/Una Vita Violenta (1962)), Alain Katz (La Cosa Buffa (1972, second assistant director)), Tullio Pinelli (Flipper (1983, TV movie)), Cesare Zavattini (Lipstick/Il Rossetto (1960)) and Valerio Zurlini (Violent Summer/Estate Violenta (1959)) contributed uncredited screenplay work.

De Sica animates the fine, heart-rendering story with a familial tenderness, and the beautiful photography (by Ennio Guarnieri (Le Giraffe (2000))) and delectable costumes add much to this war-time drama/romance, which shows us the tragedy of WWII from a new angle: SPOILER Namely from the inside of two splendid Jewish families that are destroyed.

In this exquisite production the stars sparkle: Lino Capolicchio (An Impossible Crime/Un Delitto Impossibile (2001)) and Dominique Sanda (The Journey/El Viaje (1992)), along with Helmut Berger (Die Jäger (1982)) as the closeted homosexual and ill Alberto and Romolo Valli (Boom! (1968)) as Giorgio's proudly Italian father, whose patriotism is in vain. SPOILER Only the ending, in which the victims play tennis in slow-motion, is misbegotten.

 

Related post:

 

Vittorio De Sica: A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite! (co-star)

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 596k $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain

[The Garden of the Finzi-Continis premiered 2 December (Jerusalem, Israel) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Bassani was upset with how the relationship between Malnate and Micòl was made explicit in the film and distanced himself from De Sica. The only gross number readily available online is the 596k $ North-American gross. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It won for Best Foreign Film and lost Adapted Screenplay to Ernest Tidyman for The French Connection. It also won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, 1/2 David di Donatello nominations, was nominated for a Grammy, and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. De Sica returned with an anthology segment, a TV-series episode and a TV documentary prior to his theatrical return with Lo Chiameremo Andrea (1972). Capolicchio returned in Le Tue Mani Sul Mio Corpo (1970); Sanda in Sans Mobile Apparent (1971); and Berger in Love Me Strangely/Un Beau Monstre (1971)). The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is fresh at 100 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis?

A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite!

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Despite this handsome poster for Charles Vidor's A Farewell to Arms, David O. Selznick's final production is not all that it promises to be

A Farewell to Arms is the second adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's (Death in the Afternoon (1932)) same-titled, semi-autobiographical 1929 novel.

The film portrays a romance during WWI between an American ambulance driver and an English nurse, who fall in love in Italy, before the war splits them up, and they later again find each other and are forced to flee to Switzerland, SPOILER where, however, tragedy awaits.

Despite criticisms to the contrary, I found Rock Hudson (Dynasty (1984-85)) and Jennifer Jones (The Wild Heart (1952)) to be a lovely couple, and the movie also attracts interest with its big sets and period vehicles etc., a warm sense of humor, - especially in the hospital scenes, - and in supporting roles, Viennese star Oskar Homolka (Five Fingers (1959, TV-series)) as a suspicious doctor, and great Italian actor/director Vittorio De Sica (Men and Noblemen/Uomini e Nobiluomini (1959)) as an Italian major. The film also has beautiful images of Milan, Switzerland etc.
But the lavish epic's second half does require strong nerves to take: The romance here turns too extravagant and unrealistic, SPOILER and the inevitable death is drawn out excessively. So the problem may lie mainly in screenwriter Ben Hecht's (Trapeze (1956)) work. Though Hecht penned scripts for many certified masterpieces and great films, he was also highly productive, and with impressive 165 writing credits, there is naturally a healthy dose of slush in there as well.
The movie is directed by Hollywood Golden Age filmmaker, Austrian-Hungarian Charles Vidor (Gilda (1946)).

Related post:

Charles Vidor: The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.3 mil. $
Box office: 6.9 mil. $ (worldwide rentals by 1958) - final gross reportedly 20 mil. $
= Big flop at release - later reportedly became a big hit
[A Farewell to Arms was released 14 December (North America) and runs 152 minutes. Power-producer Selznick wanted for long to make a film of Hemingway's novel, and bartered with Warner Bros. for the rights in return for his foreign rights to A Star Is Born (1937). Selznick hired master director John Huston (The Kremlin Letter (1970)), but the two fell out before shooting, and Vidor was hired instead, although he also had a hard time collaborating with Selznick. Shooting took place in Italy, including in Rome's Cinecittà Studios. Hemingway was to be paid a 50k $ bonus, if the film made profits, but the Nobel Laureate was incensed at Selznick's hiring his 38 year-old wife Jones for the novel's 24 year-old nurse character and told him to "take all of that money down to the local bank, have it converted to nickels, and then shove them up your ass until they come out your mouth." US critics lambasted the film upon its release, and Selznick never recovered his costs for the film, which became his last, but it did eventually make Fox money. The film was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (De Sica), lost to Red Buttons for Sayonara and also won a National Board of Review award. Vidor returned with one last film, Song without End (1960)). Hudson returned in Twilight for the Gods (1958); Jones in Tender Is the Night (1962), and De Sica in Holiday Island/Vacanze a Ischia (1957). A Farewell to Arms is rotten at 0 % with a 3.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Vidor's A Farewell to Arms?