TWO WOMEN (1960)

               ”Two Women” was co-written and directed by Vittorio de Sica (“Bicycle Thieves”). It was based on the novel The Woman from Ciociaria. It was originally to star Anna Magnani with Sophia Loren playing her daughter. Magnani did not want to play mother to Loren and backed out. Loren was recast as the mother although she was only 25 years old at the time. This means she would have been 13 when she gave birth. Her performance was lauded and she became the first actress or actor to win an Oscar for a foreign language film. Jean-Paul Belmondo was cast because French investors insisted on a French actor playing a prominent role. His voice was dubbed for the Italian release. The film was a big hit.  

               The film starts in Rome in 1944. The Allies are nearing the capital. It is coming under increased air bombardment. Cesira (Sophia Loren) is a war widow who runs a shop. She decides to leave with her 12-year-old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). The walk to Cesira’s hometown of Ciociaria which is in the mountains. Along the way they are strafed by a plane, but the town is a calm in the storm. She meets the local intellectual. Michel (Belmondo) falls in love with Cesira. He is a pacifist, but will be dragged into participation with tragic results. The war finally comes to the idyllic town and the two women decide to return to Rome, which has been liberated by the Allies. That rape scene that the movie has been forewarning about will occur on this journey.

               “Two Women” is a dominated by Loren. She is outstanding in what may be her best performance. She won 22 international awards, including the best performance award at Cannes and the Best Actress award at the Academy Awards (an event she did not attend because she feared she would faint when her name was called). Belmondo and Brown are fine. The film is best enjoyed as an acting showcase. It is very much a woman-oriented war movie. Cesira represents all the women impacted by war atrocities. In particular, Italian women who were commonly subjected to rape by both sides. You also get a taste of civilian life in war-torn Italy. In this respect it is a companion to “Rome, Open City” and gives the rural perspective.

               The movie is appropriately titled because it is the story of the relationship between two women and how they are impacted by war. Cesira and Rosetta are very close, so you dread what is coming for them. It is clear that something is going to happen to them because the movie is strongly anti-war. You just don’t know when the trauma is coming or how it will occur. In fact, aside from two strafings, the two manage to avoid the war until deep into the film. When it happens, the movie takes a jarring turn. The two women react differently to the trauma. One theme of the film is the loss of innocence as portrayed by the Rosetta character.

               Although not a true story, the movie is based on the Maroccinate. This term applies to a series of mass rapes by Moroccan Goumiers. They were French colonial troops who developed a reputation for horrible atrocities against Italian civilians, women and men. The most infamous incidents occurred after the Battle of Monte Cassino. In the aftermath of the battle, the Goumiers took the harshness of the battle out on villages in the vicinity. The movie comes nowhere near the incredible debauchery committed by these undisciplined soldiers. While possibly exaggerated, the atrocities undoubtedly occurred. The movie gives no context to its rapes. It appears to be a wrong place at the wrong time situation. I theorize that the French investors were not keen on financing a movie that emphasized atrocities by French troops. But black French colonial troops…

GRADE  =  B-