Divorzio all'italiana (1961) watch online HD

This movie got an Oscar for the script (among the others, by Pietro Germi, the gifted director). However, the real importance of this movie can be demonstrated by saying that an entire genre, "la commedia all'italiana" (Comedy, Italian style) is named after this movie.

A major issue of this genre is to make fun of our traditions and culture (I am Italian) despite the radical changes our Country was having during those years ('60s, '70s).

The main issue of Neo-realism (Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti) was to describe the tragic reality of miserable lives after the catastrophic WWII. Then the Italian economic boom of the '50s drove Italy into modernity and wellness. Commedia all'italiana wanted to remind us that despite this modernity we are always the same Italians we were before, with all our intelligence but also with all our defects.

"Divorce, Italian Style" is set in the most 'conservative' place of Italy of that time, where traditions like family honor were still predominant despite all modernity. In the first shots of the movie we see an environment suffocated by the heat of the Sicilian climate. People spend part of the day in their apartments waiting for the cool evening. This motionless environment is highly metaphoric, as it shows that nothing really changes in this land, suffocated by the weight of old traditions. Probably this is not so true today, but at that time certainly was.

However, don't be scared by this introduction. The movie is FUN and it turns into a fast-paced rhythm shortly.

The protagonist loves his cousin and wants to marry her, but he is already married. So he plans to murder the wife, pretending to do that for a 'legitimate' defence of honor. What is amazing is that all the village, all the people in the movie support murder for the honor of the family. They even induce him to kill. And what is sad, is that the law at that time was really soft for those types of murders.

To summarize this movie has these characteristics: 1) VERY FUN. You can't stop laughing even if the script is tragic (this is a characteristic of masterpieces) 2) WELL ACTED: Marcello Mastroianni gives one of his best performances. Stefania Sandrelli is beautiful as ever, Marcello's wife is ugly and a nuisance as her role imposes, and Leopoldo Trieste is another great actor of Italian cinema.

3) WONDERFUL STORY: the script won the Oscar and it is truly very intelligent 4) SOCIALLY COMMITTED: it is an accusation of a wrong law that supports a wrong tradition (the law was changed shortly after).

I give this masterpiece a 10 out of 10, and I strongly recommend it to everyone.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

Divorzio all'italiana is a richly textured satire of Sicilian macho Catholic life styles starring one of Italy's greatest actors, Marcello Mastroianni. He is a bit Chaplinesque in this tongue in cheek exploration of how to dump your wife and marry your 16-year-old cousin. His wide-eyed, dead pan expressions combined with vulnerability and suave, leading-man good looks made him the heart-throb of women for decades. He plays a bored baron stuck with a baroness (played fatuously by Daniela Rocca) that he cannot abide. It should be noted that today it IS possible to get a divorce in Italy, but at the time it was very difficult, perhaps easier to get an annulment, and so we have the premise of the plot.

Stefania Sandrelli, who became one of the great ladies of the Italian cinema, plays the cousin. She was only 15 when the film was shot but could easily pass for, say, 18. She is sensual, sweet and a bit naughty. In the final scene, famous for its fitting irony, the last thing we see are her feet. I won't tell you more, but the movie is almost worth seeing just for that final scene.

Rocca's Rosalia on the other hand is more syrupy than sweet and would qualify as clinging. She could smother a lumberjack, and although it is not polite to comment unfavorably on a lady's looks, I must note that she seemed to be having a bad facial hair day, everyday. Her impersonation of a country baroness nonetheless was unforgettable. I also liked 16-year-old Margherita Girelli as Sisini, the maid. Her coquettish ways helped to lend a French bedroom farce flavor to the film.

But what really makes this one of the great monuments of the Italian cinema is the witty and delightful script by Ennio De Concini (it won an Academy Award in 1962) and the detailed, textured direction by Pietro Germi. The picture that Germi paints of life in a small Sicilian (or southern Italian, for that matter) village is picturesque, much imitated, and indelible. The crowded ornate clutter of the old estate, the sun-drenched streets and the monolithic stone and mason churches haunt our memory. True, the film starts a bit slowly and drags (at least for modern audiences) a bit at times, but don't make the mistake of giving up on this. The latter half of the film is wonderful. And remember, if you had to go to film school, Divorce Italian Style would be on the syllabus.

So see this for Mastroianni of course but also because no film education would be complete without having seen Divorzio all'italiana.

The Criterion Collection DVD includes a second disc with a documentary on Germi's career, an interview with Ennio De Concini, and screen-test footage of Stefania Sandrelli and Daniela Rocca that I just had to see. There is also a booklet with reviews of the film from Stuart Klawans, Andrew Sarris, and Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's review is adoring and nostalgic since he is from Sicily and since the film had made such a lasting impression on him as a 19-year-old. For him the film was not so much a comedy as a true reflection of a life he and his family had known. He writes, "Every detail in Divorce Italian Style is so truthful and right that all Germi had to do was heighten everything a bit to make it funny."

When I first saw Pietro Germi's movies (a long time ago), I thought he was a misogynist who portrayed women as grotesque monsters that make men's lives miserable. Thirty years later, after the women's movement, I have come around 180 degrees, and see him as a feminist before his time--showing how the patriarchal family destroys women (and men)and exposing the absurdity of "family honor"--and doing it with humor. It doesn't just apply to Sicily. The Sicilian setting and ambiance is a big part of this movie, however--watch for all the little details of gestures and interactions, and the great shots of the sunbaked town, baroque churches, and interiors of the decaying houses of the aristocrats. Mastroianni is terrific, and so is the supporting cast.

This is definitely one of the best Italian comedies ever made, a movie you can watch over and over again... Mastroianni gives an excellent performance as an impoverished Sicilian aristocrat determined to get a divorce from his wife. There is only one complication - divorce is illegal in Italy at the time. However, there is also a law that justifies the killing of a wife if she is caught during an act of adultery. As with most others Germi's films, this one is a unique mix of situational comedy and social drama. Highly recommended.

Imagine the life of Baron Ferdinando Cefalu, an impoverished middle aged man who has fallen in love with his young cousin Angela. In the society of Agramonte, Sicily, of that time, being poor was endurable, but the pangs of love Ferdinando feels in his heart, is consuming him, but his bigger problem is he is married to Rosalia, a woman who truly loves him, or so it seems. What could a man do in Ferdinando's shoes? Nothing, since in the Italy of those years divorce was not allowed, either by the state, or the church.

The only possible solution to solve Ferdinando's problems is in trying to kill Rosalia. In the Italian penal code of the times, people could plea guilty in trying to avenge their honor and would get lesser sentences. Rosalia, who has no idea of what's going on, has a secret of her own. Years ago, she had been in love with Carmelo Patane, a man who went to war and on his return found that his beloved Rosalia had already married Baron Ferdinando! It's the Baron, who discovers the letters Rosalia likes to read on the sly, late at night.

Ferdinando devises a plan that will bring Carmelo to repaint some of the frescoes of the old palatial home, hoping Rosalia and the painter will try to reacquaint themselves, as it's obvious that even though Carmelo is married, he still loves Rosalia! The Baron, who has bought a tape recorder, and spies on his wife and the painter, knows the end is in sight and gambling on getting a short jail time, goes ahead with his plans. Little does he know what his life with Angela will be like!

"Divorce Italian Style", directed by Pietro Germi, was a satire about Italian law that allowed such practices to take place. In a complete Catholic society, people got married for life, literally. Since there was no divorce, couples who found out they were not compatible had to keep on staying married because divorce was not an option. Pietro Germi and his collaborators take a look at how, with some clever research, imagination, and ingenuity, an unhappily married man could get a release from those restricting marital vows.

Marcello Mastroianni was perfect as Baron Ferdinando Cefalu. The actor clearly knew this man and the mentality of men like his character. His facial expressions are worth the price of the rental of this wonderful Criterion DVD. Mastroianni, one of the best film actors of his generation gives one of the best performances of his career. Daniella Rocca, who plays Rosalia, makes a great contribution to make this film the winner it is. Leopoldo Trieste, another important figure in the Italian cinema, appears as Carmelo Patane, the painter who never stopped loving Rosalia. Stefania Sandrelli, is seen briefly as the object of Ferndinando's passion and love.

The DVD transfer has kept the film black and white cinematography of Carlo DiPalma and Leonida Barboni intact. We can see the sunny Sicilian town in all its splendor as captured by the camera of these men. Pietro Germi, the director and co-writer, delivered a film that is a classic because of the humanity, love and humor that went into this tremendously satisfying work.

Definitely a classic film, but not just an Italian classic! "Divorzio all'italiana" centers itself around Ferdinando Cefalù (Mastroianni), a 37 year old baron in a small town. Although he's a baron, his life is not completely perfect as his father has squandered much of their money, and his extremely clingy wife Rosalia stands between him and the only thing he loves, his 16 year old cousin Angela. To add salt to the wound, 1960's Italy does not allow couples to divorce, which leads Ferdinando to seek desperate measures. After a town scandal erupts, when a woman murders her cheating husband to protect her honor, Ferdinando is inspired to set up his wife with a lover in order to kill her and "protect his honor." The rest of the movie chronicles Ferdinando's attempts to find someone who would fit the bill.

"Divorzio all'italiana" is a satirical look at Italian society and its seemingly backward laws which force people to do stupid things and its fallibility at justice. In its social commentary of Italian laws/society, Concini, Germi, and Giannetti (the writers) create well fitted, stereotypical characters that are much needed in order for the message of the film to get across. Ferdinando plays the evil nobleman, Rosalia as the annoying wife, Angela as the desirable secret teen lover, etc. The beauty of the story not only lies in it's scathingly funny humor, with Ferdinando's clever plotting and hallucinations of killing his wife, but also in its ability to transcend time. Nowadays there are no laws that forbid divorce in most societies, but even though that crucial point does not relate to modern audiences, the film is still able to conjure emotions for the characters' plight. Another great thing about the film, is the idea of a protagonist character with typically antagonist characteristics. Ferdinando is definitely a bad man, but the story plays with the audience in making them want Ferdinando to succeed in his plot. To add to the underlying theme of the film, the failure of Italian laws, is the theme of "justice" whether it be from the law or from a simple reversal of fate. Definitely watch the film up to the very end, as it closes with an ironic yet justified twist of fate for the characters involved.

Baron Ferdinando Cefalu is very much in love with his cousin, Angela, and wishes to marry her. The only problem? He's already married. Since divorce is outlawed the Baron decides to get rid of his wife with a lesser crime: murder. "Divorce, Italian Style" is a pitch black satire of a chauvinist society and Italy's hypocritical judicial system.

Marcello Mastroianni, best known for his starring role in 8 1/2, is delightfully woeful and sarcastic as Baron Cefalu. His expressions and his nervous tics provide several good chuckles. Daniela Rocca is perfectly annoying as Baroness Cefalu, making it quite easy to take delight in her husband's murderous fantasies. Stefania Sandrelli is quite good as Angela. Her scenes with Mastroianni are especially passionate and, since this was one of Sandrelli's earliest films, they show a real talent in the making.

While I did laugh at "Divorce, Italian Style" (as well as that amazing Criterion cover art), don't expect a straight up comedy. It does make a serious point about the failings of Italy's judicial system. I will also admit that watching Baroness Cefalu drown in quicksand was an unpleasant sight, and not funny at all. Watching her get blasted into space = side-splitting laughter. Watching her drown in quicksand = uncomfortable.

However, don't be detered from this film. If you've never seen any of Mastroianni's films this is the one to start with.

DIVORCE Italian STYLE is a comedy drama about love pains and problems with laws.

An impoverished Sicilian nobleman is married with an unattractive but devoted wife. However, he is in love with his, a much younger and attractive, cousin. He lives, besides his wife, with his elderly parents, his spinster sister and her boyfriend. The divorce was illegal in Italy at that time. He has, unsuccessfully, tried to move away from his wife. Perhaps he will try to kill his wife?! A young cousin is so beautiful. He has a very little time to come up with something. A local story of a woman who killed her husband in a rage of jealousy has gave him a great idea...

This satirical farce, which includes an affair in a marriage, love for a minor girl and a murder of honor is, in spite of moral transgressions, a very interesting film. Mr. Germi has made a series of wonderful plots, in which he has, in a satirical manner, criticized laws in the Italian society. He has, very imaginatively, combined fantasies with reality. Therefore, the malicious actions of the main protagonist seem quite charming. A happy ending is the culmination of irony.

Scenery and music completely correspond with love pains in this film. Characterization is very good.

Marcello Mastroianni as Ferdinando Cefalù is a sympathetic and cunning man at the same time. He, perhaps, goes through a midlife crisis. However, his ambitions and plans, which he has prepared with a large dose of elegance and serenity, are quite childish. His character is filled with pathos, despair and longing. Mr. Mastroianni has offered an excellent performance, which is the foundation of a top class entertainment in this film.

His support are Daniela Rocca (Rosalia Cefalù) as his boring wife, Stefania Sandrelli (Angela) as his passion, lust and love and Leopoldo Trieste as Carmelo Patanè as his "salvation".

This is a very entertaining movie about love torments and...still "natural laws".

In my lifetime I have seen about ten to twenty films with Marcello Mastroianni in them, including two made before he made "Divorce Italian Style", but for me the film that imprinted himself to American film audiences was this one. His Baron Ferdinando Cefalo is one of the cleverest homicidal figures in movies, and yet one of the most bumbling. One can say he succeeds despite himself.

Set in Sicily, then as now the poorest area of Italy and one of the most backward, the film shows how the Baron is bored by his present wife Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), a good woman but somewhat overwhelming in her unwanted affection. Rosalia is not unattractive (in a lightly heavy manner), but she is certainly not currently able to get more than a mild interest in her husband in whatever she is doing. The Baron is quite interested in his young female cousin Angela (Stefania Andrelli), a vibrant and young woman who is about to go to convent school. Baron Ferdinando would love to marry Angela, but how to get rid of Rosalia? Divorce (as Americans know it) is not liked in Catholic countries, particularly in the most backward sections of them. But the laws of the day in Italy (say about 1955 or so) have a crazy version of the so-called "unwritten law" regarding shooting adulterers...except the Italian version allows for the shooting of the guilty spouse by his or her wronged spouse, and the granting of a relatively light sentence (believe it or not three years!).

The problem is that the killer must catch the adulterous pair in their act of guilty passion when they are doing it. And there must be sufficient emotional pressure on the perpetrator to justify a case of sudden homicidal impact. Baron Ferdinando has to orchestrate out of artificial methods the exact situation to enable him to legally kill Rosalia. He presses ahead, and his society is shown for all it's secrets and backwardness.

First, he studies up on the law and recent cases, even checking out the grand Italian lawyer with his flowery oratory style who he will use (later on we hear the lawyer's possible future speech describing some of the actions of the Baron as he pursues his dream). Then he has to find a good patsy - who is the other man? Here he finds this fellow is gay, that one is happily married, that one (in the choir) has...well a physical problem. Finally he selects an old friend of Rosalia, a painter from Messena named Carmelo Patane (Leopoldo Trieste). The Baron gives Carmelo a restoration job in his villa (I'm kind when I call his ramshackle home that), and then makes sure that Rosalia and Carmelo are left by themselves a lot.

In his way he tries to be modern in this 18th Century atmosphere. He tape records the private conversations of Rosalia and Carmelo to see if they have finally broken down to commit their adultery. This is far more tedious than he hoped, as Rosalia tries to maintain her loyalty to his husband, and Carmelo keeps a major secret from Rosalia. As they break down there is also the problems of the love-sick maid who Carmelo is also attracted to. And as each problem arises we watch the Baron try to figure out how to overcome them.

When the crisis arises finally we see the locals at their worst, with the men laughing at the Baron's being cuckolded, but everyone freezing out him and his family because his reaction is to take to his bed. But he is only waiting for the right moment to avenge his honor. When will it occur, or will it ever occur?

Italian cinema had been part of the international film language since 1945 with Neo-realism, and masters like Rossalini, De Sica, and (later) Fellini. Some of the films of the 1950s, like the original "Big Deal On Madonna Street", included Mastroianni in the casts, but others (Vittorio Gassman, Toto) were the stars or shared the fun. This film put him on the map for our audiences, with his proper, well dressed, soft-spoken minor aristocrat, with his "tic" (he clicks his mouth when something unexpected or unpleasant occurs around him). With slicked down hair and droopy, trimmed mustache, he looks like a man whose been losing at gambling tables all night at the rate of one lira an hour - no smile, but no real feeling of great loss. It was a memorable dead pan performance. He never quite repeated it (most of his characters were far more lively in their antics), but it stamped itself on American audiences. Soon his series of films with Sophia Loren cemented him into the position of Italy's leading romantic male film figure and great farceur. He never failed to live up to those two views in all of the films he appeared in until his death in 1996.

DIVORCE Italian STYLE is one of the funniest films I've ever seen on the subject of how to dissolve a marriage--Italian style, of course. Seems those Italians have a way of forgiving murder if the spouse has cheated and is found in the act--which must give rise to some pretty unsavory stories in real life as well as here.

But however unpleasant the subject matter may seem, this is the merriest romp of a comedy I've come across in a long time. It's so artful in the way it gets inside the mind of the impoverished aristocrat (MARCELLO MASTROIANNI) living in palatial ruins in Sicily and desperately devising a way to get rid of his boring wife. He devises a plan that goes awry when "La Dolce Vita" comes to town and, with all the men in the village attending it, his wife takes that opportunity to run off with her lover.

It's a masterful job that Mastroianni does here, giving little signs of distress with a twitch of his mustache, a frown, a concentrated gaze--in other words, bewitched, bothered and bewildered as he contemplates how to go about getting rid of his freedom so he can pursue a young girl he's enamored of. All the events leading up to the final act are hilariously Italiano in style--those little devils knew how to take advantage of the judicial system.

Summing up: A sheer delight from beginning to end, thanks to a masterful job by Marcello Mastroianni in his Oscar-nominated role.

Let me begin by declaring that I liked "Divorce, Italian Style"...sort of. I come to both bury and praise this movie at the same time, if such a thing is possible.

It's not a bad film, by any means. In fact, it possesses many of the greatest strengths of foreign cinema - it's got plenty of wit, bite, intelligence, and the kind of cold insight into human nature that is often lacking in glamorized Hollywood films. In short, it's well done.

And yet, it annoyed me. Something about the enormously cynical plot - which involves an unhappily married man (Marcello Mastroianni) trying to break free from his clingy wife - bugged me. Perhaps I got just tired of Marcello's world-weary persona after a while; it initially amused me, then started to grate. It's tough to watch such a superficial weed of a character for a whole movie.

And perhaps I also got a little tired of the wife, who is depicted as an endlessly cheerful weirdo with a hideous unibrow and a mustache. Cheerful, and fawning. Extremely fawning. In fact, the film contains innumerable close-ups of her fawning face. But here's the problem - how many shots of a fawning woman with a hideous unibrow does any normal viewer want to see? After a while, it just got too ugly for me to look at.

Perhaps I'm being frivolous. But I'm trying to suggest, in my own clumsy way, that the movie was a little too grotesque for me. The characters were a little too bizarre, the shouting was a little too loud, and the satire narrowly missed the mark. I wanted to like it, really... but it ended up irritating me. Shame, really - but I'm sure that many Italian movie buffs will love it despite my grumblings.

I love this movie. It's one of those masterpieces in which everything - direction, acting, script, music - is so flawless, the result is almost miraculous. This wickedly funny gem by Pietro Germi is one of the greatest Italian comedies, and also a biting satire.

Sicilian baron Fernando Cefalù (Mastroianni, exceptional) falls in love with Angela (Stefania Sandrelli). To marry her, Fernando needs to get rid of his annoying wife Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), so he manipulates his spouse into betraying him with Carmelo (Leopoldo Trieste); according to the old Italian penal code, any husband who killed an adulterous wife would get a mere three years sentence.

Mastroianni carries the movie with a note-perfect performance as the baron, a deadpan, amoral man with an utterly phoney sense of honor. Pirandello would have loved this two-faced character. Supporting actors are wonderful too, from Daniela Rocca as the archetypal obnoxious wife to Leopoldo Trieste as her awkward lover, from young Stefania Sandrelli to minor players in small roles (like the pompous lawyer or the mob boss).

The Academy Award-winning script has an hilariously cynical streak. The soundtrack is genius and used in an unforgettable way - who can forget the sardonic march as Cefalù struts around the town while everybody whispers behind his back?

10/10

An Italian big shot with a nagging wife concocts ways to be rid of her so he can be free to lust after his cousin. Mastroinni, sporting a pencil-thin mustache, seems to be trying very hard to make it funny, but is let down by a witless script. Rocca, also sporting a pencil-thin mustache (no kidding), as well a uni-brow, plays the nagging wife. Sandrelli is the cousin, and nobody makes an issue of cousins having an affair (Oh those Italians!). Everybody overacts and the humor is forced and rather cartoony. Good comedies are marked by two traits - they are funny and they don't overstay their welcome. This one fails on both accounts.

There's a moment in Pietro Germi's Divorzio all'italiana (aka: Divorce Italian Style) that pretty much defines everything, that sort of defines what a black comedy is all about: a certain woman murders her husband because he had run away with another woman, that certain woman murdered him while he was out with his new love. And that certain woman had something similar with our main character, Marcello Mastroianni's Baron Ferdinando Cefalù, and actually after the murder she crossed path with Ferdinando. The moment that sort of defines everything is when these two, the certain woman and our main character, are together since is Mastroianni delivering a really great laugh, is Ferninando being like "" ...certainly and certainly is the way that Mastroianni delivers the scene that makes it so fantastic and hilarious.

Divorce Italian Style is a pretty good film. It begins kind of slowly, but really picks up towards the end. It is worth seeing for several reasons, foremost among them, to see Marcello Mastrioanni in anything is worthwhile. It is also interesting culturally, although, be warned, this is not meant to be any kind of cultural document from Italy. In fact, I believe the film is taking place in Sicily because of its more conservative nature. I don't think that these customs were common even there, but the Italian public could accept it better if it were happening in Sicily. There is one part of interest to any film enthusiast: the characters in the film go to see La Dolce Vita! Of course, Mastrioanni was the star of that film (they don't show any scene with him in it). We see priests condemning La Dolce Vita and blaming the cuckolding of the main character on it. We also see a woman looking sideways at her boyfriend when his eyes are oggling Anita Eckberg. His response: "No, no, no, I don't like her. She's beautiful, but she has no soul."

What would you do if you've been married for many years, lost any romantic interest in your less than attractive wife, and fell in love with a beautiful young girl? Divorce, you'd say but there is one thing, you see - in Italy in 1960s there were no divorce. So, once again, what would you do? Made forty five years ago about an old Italian Law that had declared divorce illegal but would give a minimum sentence for killing a cheating spouse, "Divorce, Italian Style" is hilarious, melancholic, biting, clever, and belongs to the best comedies ever. First, Germi was going to make a tragic film and there are many elements of tragedy in "Divorce, Italian Style". After all, two people who are in love and happy together will be killed because of the strict and unforgiving traditions that made their way into the laws of the country. Pietro Germi directed a movie that is saturated with the merciless boredom, suffocating heat and humidity of a small Sicilian town where seemingly nothing ever happens and where Baron Fete Gefalu leads the life of not so quiet desperation with his wife or 13 years, Rosalia who had bored him to death. To make the things worse, his 16 years old angelic cousin Angela (one look at 16 years old Stefania Sandrelli in her early role and you can forgive or at least understand Fete) just returned from the nun school and he is desperately in love with her. As we know, love moves the sun and the planets and it made Fete's mind invent the plan on how to get rid of Rosalia which was deliciously simple and deadly funny. What Fete did was unspeakable but HOW Marcello Mastroianni played it was one of the greatest comedic performances I've ever seen. To watch his face when he was imagining all sorts of creepy accidents to Rosalia and to hear him narrating the movie was Delight from the opening scene to the incredible and brilliant in its irony final.

It's really a masterpiece but Daniela Rocca is not at all ugly, like another guy wrote, watch her well in the movie. And, she's a great actress. I would have liked to start with Marcello or Stefania, who are more beautiful than ever and do some extraordinary roles. There are no words to express how wonderful they are. Margherita Girelli is really delicious in the role of Sisina. And Angela Cardile, gorgeous in the role of Agnese. Leopoldo Trieste, Lando Buzzanca and everyone else, are not at all inferior. Germi's direction is brilliant. The story is more than captivating. Carlo Rustichelli's music is tremendous. A film worth seeing at any time, is one of the absolute masterpieces of the 7th art. Me, I've seen it so many times that I do not know exactly how many...

This classic Italian film is a comedy that tells the story of Ferdinando Cefalu who is unhappily married for 15 years, but he falls in love with his wife's niece, and he starts a plan to end his marriage and not be criticized by the old and classy Italian society. In the meantime, in order to complete his plan many things happened including funny moments and some dramatic moments. The movie seems to have been very well directed and very well acted and gives us a little hint about the behavior of the Sicilian society. In order to do his plan, Ferdinando chooses a crazy idea, and takes a long time to plan and detail his plan perfectly having a lot of funny interruptions during the process of his plan. Its refreshing to find movies with good sense of humor, and no use of vulgarities or bad language to make the viewers laugh. I really enjoyed it, and i deeply recommend watching it.

This is a very fun film starring Marcello Mastroianni by director Pietro Germi (both received Oscar nominations) which received the Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Oscar in 1963, as well as numerous other awards.

Ferdinando Cefalú (Mastroianni) is married to Rosalia (Daniela Rocca), a woman who is suffocating him with her love. They live in a large Italian family villa such that his beautiful 16 year old niece Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), to whom he is irresistibly drawn, lives across the courtyard from him.

He witnesses a court case about a woman who has murdered her philandering husband and fantasizes about ridding himself of his own wife. However, he must figure out how to get away with it so that he will only have to serve a short time behind bars ... in order to be young enough to pursue his comely niece. When he learns of his niece's attraction to him, he plots to find a lover for his wife to justify her murder.

You can almost watch the entire thing without sound. Of course, it's in Italian with English subtitles. Funny, slapstick humor abounds.

Marcello Mastriani plays a total jerk in this film. His loving wife is a good woman. Perhaps she isn't beautiful (she's got quite the 5 o'clock shadow), but she cares about him even when he is obviously indifferent to her. Instead of loving her, Mastriani has fallen for his MUCH YOUNGER cousin (ewww). But, in Italy at that time divorce wasn't easily obtained, so he plans on murdering his wife. He reasons that if he convinces everyone that she was cheating on him, that his prison sentence would be pretty short and he could then marry his cousin. Well, along the way things go a little bit different than he had planned--particularly the brilliant ending of the film.

This film is NOT for the sentimental or those looking for a romance. No, it is very very very cynical and dark but quite funny. Give it a look. A very funny script and lots of delicious twists make this a must-see for fans of Italian cinema. My daughter, who usually does not watch Italian films, saw this with me and absolutely adored it--saying it was now her favorite foreign comedy. While I wouldn't quite go that far, it is darn good and clever throughout.

Divorzio all'Italiana (1961)is the story of a man's gradual decline,the Sicilian Baron Cefalú who,disgusted with his wife (Daniela Rocca) and her advances,aims at a very young woman's charms,and he finds her in his own household.To be with her,the fretted Baron has to get rid of his boring wife.So,the movie is in the "how to kill your ..." scheme.

Good-looking,sly,randy,lithe, almost young,Marcello Mastroianni wants to escape from his marriage's mire;his smoldering passion for the graceful Stefania Sandrelli (here,a teenager) breaks out,after a series of fortuitous encounters with the child:he runs into her in the street, on the beach,in the church.The girl's secret diary confesses that the erotic feelings are mutual.The film records this crescendo,the multiple factors that compete to bring the two hearts together.But Stefania Sandrelli's grumpy father has no respect for privacy,and reads her diary ....

Marcello Mastroianni's role as Cefalú is brilliant,staggering, astonishing, much above the sarcastic,shameless story.In his bright 30s and 40s,Marcello Mastroianni,here 37 years old,and one year after The Sweet Life,made several sex comedies (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ; Matrimonio all'Italiana ,1964;Oggi, Domani, Dopodomani ,1965;L'Uomo Dei Cinque Palloni,1965;Casanova '70,1965;A Slightly Pregnant Man,etc.), giving constantly radiant and wonderfully inspired performances that are among cinema's gems.

One can not speak about Marcello Mastroianni otherwise than with infinite respect.He belongs to the rank of the greatest film actors ever,on a par with Pierre Fresnay,Louis Jouvet,Michel Simon,Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau,Gérard Depardieu,Erich Von Stroheim ,James Cagney.

Now,one word about my favorite actress,Stefania Sandrelli.I admire her since I was 18 years old.Her stunning role as Angela is one of the two definitive expressions of her sexuality (the other being Teresa Rolfe in La Chiave, 1983).

Divorce, Italian Style is the sheer definition of the level of showmanship that even the popular Italian cinema reached in the '60s.It evokes the Meridional communal existence ,the family life of a Sicilian baron,and his retreats counterpoise his family life (wife,sister,genitors,etc.).The strength of this brutal and gruesome sex comedy is its low-brow self assurance.Yet,it has a finesse,a cynicism that do not recommend it to the adolescence's mind;it is simultaneously brutal and of a certain fineness,it demands,to be enjoyed,interest for life.

The music is languorous and desirous in the first half,and funeral in the second.

In Divorzio all'Italiana (1961),the nudity,that is Stefania Sandrelli's ,skimps to a naked spotless shoulder,and her body is more bright,tender and luminous than ever.

The erotic run in this movie,the sex race,is symmetrical to the one to be found in another famous Italian sex comedy,Malèna (2000).The barrister is the same,his pleading ,his declamation arise from the same chasm of ridicule.The provincial society is,also,the very same."Divorzio ..." is a more cynical,derisive, biting satire,Pietro Germi is a more brutal and corrosive satirist than Giuseppe Tornatore, and less indignant.

Having already done remarkable ,defining roles in The Night ,The Sweet Life ,White Nights ,Chronicle of Poor Lovers,Marcello Mastroianni's role in "Divorzio ..." is a fashioned,vigorous,resourceful and vivid expression of his charm and intelligence.He is drowsy,sagging,bored,he becomes tetchy and devilish,then bewildered,then blasé.At first,he seems an almost entitled,in his exasperation,gentleman,but then,he comes out as a dullard,a rather disgusting profligate,a wanton dolt. Gradually,the philanderer Cefalú looses our sympathy.

On its level,this vulgar and lively,fast paced comedy is somehow flawless.But its real value comes from the quality of its two leads. The entire cast is deserving and skilled (Daniela Rocca,Margherita Girelli,Leopoldo Trieste ...),but Marcello Mastroianni and Stefania Sandrelli are,here,at their energies' peak;an early one,for Stefania Sandrelli.

I remember Mastroianni dreaming of transforming his wife into soap,or of sending her in space as a laughing Gagarin.Quite fallow jokes,but Marcello Mastroianni gives them force.

Daniela Rocca had a short career,only a few movies in the '50s and '60s.

Pietro Germi made several interesting movies,the last one is from 1972; he died in 1974.

I think Divorzio all'italiana is an all-time masterpiece of movie-making art. It has amazing depth, and an amazing amount of detail. The cinematography, the script, the acting, the music – all wonderful. The thing is just uncanny. Even though my understanding of Italian is limited to maybe a dozen words, I felt drawn to listening to the dialog – listening in order to get whatever meaning I could pick up from the actors' InFlection and InTonation. The actors were just fantastic.

The screenplay is a ruthless skewering of post world war 2 Italy, revealing how Italians were becoming fully aware of the changes that were happening in the rest of the world, revealing how they were being affected by them – appearing eager to adopt them, but at the same time suffering from some kind of insidious stagnation resulting from the Italy's interpretation of the mores imposed by the Roman Catholic church – and revealing the problems that resulted from the conflict between change and stagnation. Some of the changes that were referenced, to hilarious effect as they reached stagnant Italy, were rock and roll, men orbiting the earth, and perhaps the most hilarious, the Italian movie released just a short time earlier: La Dolce Vita.

Divorzio all'italiana's main character, FeFe, to get the changes he wants in his life, he doesn't try to change the system; he works within the system. He carries out what seems like a rather unlikely strategy, however it is a strategy that works, sort of. In the process of carrying it out, the rot within the system gets exposed, and the humor gets created.

In most movies, the music that is used – it is used to tell the audience how the movie makers want the audience to feel about the things that are being said, about the things that are going on, about how the characters must feel. The dialog tells viewers what the the characters Think; the music tells viewers what the movie makers want the characters, and the viewers, to feel about that. It is, in most movies, as if the dialog and the actors need some extra help emoting, so the director calls in the composer to help out. "Now you know how you are supposed to feel about this, audience." This is NOT how the music is used in Divorzio all'italiana. I am not sure I can explain what the music does in Divorzio all'italiana, what it does differently – but the music does something different, and wonderful. I don't think I have ever seen another movie where I enjoyed the music so much, or where it supported the movie and "belonged" to the movie so well. Just another one of the little details that contribute to Divorzio all'italiana being a masterpiece. By the way, for most of the dialog, I needed a translation, but not for the title. I find it hard to believe that there are any speakers of English who couldn't figure out the meaning of "Divorzio all'italiana" without a translation.

It may sound snobbish to call this a "backwoods" spoof censuring the uncivilised marriage system not that far time ago, but the Sicily populace shouldn't take it too personal since it is a truthful recount of that provincial and religion-brainwashed era, we can only progress when we are not ashamed to face up our own shortcomings. DIVORCE Italian STYLE was a massively successful comedy at its time, with sleek camera-work in monochromatic glamour and an engaging score by Rustichelli, even conquered the demography overseas, and harvested three Oscar nominations (including BEST LEADING ACTOR, BEST DIRECTOR) with one win for its original script, quite a phenomenon for a foreign language picture.

A do-nothing baron Ferdinando (Mastroianni) intends to kill his annoying wife Rosalia (Rocca), so that he can marry his young cousin Angela (a fourteen-year-old Sandrelli, it is not just incestuous, also borderline pedophiliac, the noble family's fortune is in decline, however this inglorious bent runs deeply in their blue-blooded genes). Like father like son, the film cunning reveals, his hoary father Don Gaetano (Spadaro), shares the same voyeuristic habit to the same subject within their family. So, what is Fefe's (Ferdinando's nickname in the family) plan when divorce is not an option to get rid of his wife? The only solution is to bloodily murder her during a crime-of-passion for her infidelity, for which he will only serve for some shortened years in prison. This is exactly what the story unwinds when conveniently he finds out Carmelo Patanè (Trieste), a painter recently arrives in the town, is actually an old acquaintance of Rosalia, who admires her as if she is the reincarnation of Madonna. Obviously, Fefe is a morally corrupted person, but in a comical way, viewers cannot help rooting for his murder plan thanks to Mastroianni's first-class force-of-personality, with a hovering doubt of whether he will do it or not. Injecting a sublime likableness into Fefe's stalemate, Mastroianni unleashes a superlative demeanour of drollness, his comedic knack is unparalleled in the film, who would have expect that it was under the hand of Pietro Germi, whose directorial prowess in comedy hadn't been tested at then. One of the takeaways is Fefe's habitual twitch on his left cheek, which I have a personal affinity with.

Another functional trickery to render sympathy towards Fefe is Germi's caricatural portrayal of Rosalia, (Rocca, was Germi's lover then, whose career would be truncated after the breakup, which unfortunately would also traumatise her mental state), deliberately uglifies her with a prominent moustache and a manually designed unibrow, she emerges as an insufferable shrew who is also overly love-wanting. Rocca sacrifices her voluptuous appeal for being a generic laughing stock, yet, Germi unexpectedly proffers her with the most meritorious virtue amongst the cast, she is the one who is brave enough to elope with her paramour, in sheer contrast with Fefe's cowardice in nature and subjugation of the small-town's parochiality which overtly he despises. It elevates her as the most integral character, and overshadows all the others in this rotten family. That's why her denouement is rather shocking when the cruelty submerged under the farcical guise finally takes a whoop to generate something other than genuine laughters, in fact it is a scorching social commentary using a jaunty allure as a beguiling front. It is further solidified by the killing ending, literally in the last ten-seconds, utterly outsmarts our trepidation of impending bathos. Truth is, this sterling comedy again is a sound testimony that a film can be wholeheartedly diverting and at the same time, sates audience's intellectual appetite as well, well done, Mr. Germi and his team.

Laugh out loud funny. There were many strange customs depicted in the film that made me wonder if life in Sicily at that time was really like that or did they take liberties for comedy sake. Who cares? Who'd have thought that Marcello M could possibly be THAT funny? But he is and I can't help thinking that perhaps Peter Sellers borrowed a bit of that personality for his Inspector Clouseau. I wonder how many people realize that if you take away the murder aspect of the plot and just leave the seduction of the niece, it would be a carbon copy of Lolita. If you have any thoughts about obtaining the DVD release, be warned. The transfer is horrible and the sound isn't much better.

Marcello Mastroianni is a great actor but who does he want to fool with those little mustaches playing the part of a Sicilian? He doesn't make sense. He isn't credible. With this premise the movie is all downhill. Mastroianni overacts making his part furthermore less credible. All the actors overact and the movie becomes a mess. Pietro Germi lost control. If everyone was a little more serious this could have a been a great comedy.

The director will make a sort of masterpiece with SIGNORE & SIGNORI (Ladies & Gentlemen) but 4 years will have to pass.

The DVD I saw had images of bad quality. Being an Italian movie unfortunately it often happens.