Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

vespatian75 This is a great film. With deeper content then is first evident. The Neapolitan atmosphere adds charm and humor to the treatment. The beautiful Neapolitan songs are delightful to listen to. Unless you're Italian from the post war era or grew up in a first generation Italian American home, as I did, you may not understand the reference to the post WW2 classic Neapoitan song "Munasterio Santa Chiara" a sad and beautiful tune that deals with the changes that afflicted Neapolitan society after the War. However, the theme of the movie, the exploitation of the poor especially poor women by the wealthier, specifically in prostitution and the keeping of a mistresses could and does occur in every society. Loren plays Filomena a poor girl who chooses to use her beauty to escape crushing poverty. The Neapolitan background adds a specific texture to the film. Her Catholic background leads her to hide from her lover the fact that she was pregnant with his child. The reason being that he would then pressure her into an abortion which would violate her whole being. Her desire for respectability leads her to not to disclose to any of her three sons that she is their mother. But Naples is more than just a background for the film. It serves to humanize the characters Mastroiani is not simply a cad. He really loves Loren though he is reluctant to admit it. The tacit acceptance of unconventional circumstance with an underlying tolerance and humor is a hallmark of the Neapolitan character. and gives added credibility to the ending. In the hands of say Ingmar Bergman the film could be a stark tragedy. DeSica, Loren, and Mastroianni turn it into a comic masterpiece.

Turfseer I couldn't remember if I had seen 'Marriage Italian Style' years ago so I decided to take a look at it, now far into my middle age. I was expecting a sophisticated comedy since after all, the director was the famed Vittorio De Sica. Unfortunately, I must confess that I was disappointed. Not that the acting was so bad—after all, superstars such as Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni usually never proffer up performances to sneeze at. Nonetheless, it was obvious from the start, that De Sica was working from a script that is now woefully dated.'Marriage Italian Style' begins in the present time when the movie was made (early 60s). Loren plays Filumena Marturano who is pretending to be grievously ill, in one last desperate attempt to trick Domenico Soriano (Mastrioianni) into marrying her. We then flashback to when the couple met, (which was during World War II) when Filumena was working as a prostitute in a brothel and Domenico, a successful businessmen, begins a relationship with her. The comedy is supposed to stem from Domenico's awkward attempts to hide his infidelity from Filumena but she's always one step ahead of him.Eventually Domenico 'ups' his commitment to her by offering to take her into his home as an unofficial mistress. At first, Filumena appears honored since his mother lives there and she plans on establishing a good rapport with the mother, in order to solidify her relationship with Domenico. The relationship with the mother immediately becomes a burden when it becomes clear that the mother is hopelessly senile!After Filumena's charade is exposed, she has one last card to play: she reveals that she has three children and one of them is fathered by Domenico. Now the comic plot shifts as Domenico keeps trying to figure out who is the son. After he basically kicks Filumena out of his home and plans never to see her again, he eventually has a change of heart, realizing the error of his ways in trying to favor one child over the two others.One wonders why Filumena is drawn back to the cad Domenico due to the way in which he has mistreated through the years. The answer of course is that Filumena is a) pretty much emotionally dependent on him despite the bad treatment, b) financially dependent and c) lacking in self- esteem to walk away.The sudden change of heart by Domenico, to go back to Filumena and accept the three children as his own, seems unlikely, given his years of philandering. Nonetheless, a la Hollywood, the happy ending appears pre-ordained.Even though you might expect a film such as this which features such big stars, to be an instant classic, even the best directors can do little, if they're saddled with a weak script!

gregorybmowery Forget Hepburn and Tracy. This is one of cinema's finest romantic duos ever. I've seen MARRIAGE Italian STYLE many, many times and I never get tired of its richness and complexity. I don't think of it as romantic at all. Domenico is quite the bastard. He cheats on Filumena, barely hiding his entitlement as a wealthy and spoiled Neopolitan man about town. He manipulates Filumena cruelly, turning her into his poorly paid bakery manager, housekeeper, and surrogate wife, abandoning her for the pleasures of out-of-town conquests, staying away for months at a time. He won't acknowledge her existence to his mother--god forbid. All the classic elements of the Italian male ego are in display and Mastroiani captures them all superbly. He also is a subtle and masterful comic and his exasperation with Filumena whenever he doesn't get his way is as funny as it is obvious. But it Sophia Loren at the peak of her physical and acting powers who is the center of his wonderful film. Filumena is tragically in love with Domenico and no matter how much he humiliates her, she cannot be free of him. Most women would have given up, not Filumena. And when Domenco is caught with the cashier of one of his cafés, Filumena devises a plan to trap him into marriage. The plan, executed with precision and the considerable personality of her household staff is a failure, but not before Filumena reveals that has three sons, which she has kept from him. Refusing to tell Domenico which of the young men is his son, Filumena eventually guarantees that he will remain with her for good. At the same time, he also realizes his days as a lady's man are numbered. He cannot completely give up the woman who has loved him unconditionally for twenty two years. Will their future be happily assured? I think Vittorio De Sica brilliantly leaves you wondering. MARRIAGE Italian STYLE is a classic--a brilliant observation of a relationship between strong and willful people. Filumena's selfless devotion to Domenico is fun to watch, but it's even more fun when she explodes, matching her conniving lover negotiation for negotiation. Unlike many beautiful leading ladies, Loren is not afraid to deglamorize her utter gorgeousness in search of character. It's more than an Oscar-worthy performance. De Sica perfectly captures the quirks of the household staff--you never are in doubt about who's side they are on, the sharply telling personality of Domenico's whiny, dying mama, and the three boys are all perfectly cast. Mastroiani is superb. But it is Loren's film and you can't take your eyes off of her. The famous walk as every man's eyes turn on her magnificence, is riveting. Very few women have so gracefully projected sexiness as she does here. I'm sure I'l watch it ten more times!

Armando Mariani I thing that during the last 40 years, I watched "Matrimonio all'Italiana" at least six or seven time, the last (but probably not the least) being a few days ago and, guess what, it gets better every time! The majority of the viewers and critics call it an "Italian comedy". I have to disagree. I consider it a "Love Story" and a "Neapolitan true life drama". The Neapolitans were (and to a certain extent still are) "a bread apart". Their unique philosophy, religious believes heavily mixed-up with superstition ("San Gennarí, pienzace tu..!" = Little San Gennaro, you solve it..!), their concepts of life, death, love, honor, pride, family, motherhood, their unique sense of humor and their ability to go around the obstacles, are all part of a cultural heritage, product of centuries of almost uninterrupted foreign domination, which sank them more and more into poverty. WW2 was the most severe blow, which hit Naples and the whole region very hard. The weakest and poorest learned the hard way how to bend, if necessary, without breaking, becoming a race of survivors, struggling on a daily basis to satisfy their more basic needs. They developed the so called "Arte di arrangiarsi" which can be loosely translated as "Art of finding the way...to get away with it", which was used to "steal" from the rich and powerful minority, by means of mostly illegal but very imaginative subterfuges, their little share of wellbeing. This movie is an enjoyable colorful portrait of this "world apart", beautifully directed by Vittorio De Sica and wonderfully acted by one of the best teaming-up of Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, joined by a strong group of supporting actors, lead by veteran Neapolitan actress Tecla Scarano. It is full of outbursts of typical lively Neapolitan hot and loud temperament and, a mixture of joy and sorrow, humor and drama, will take you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and will make you laugh and cry. One of the two main characters, Filomena Marturano, gives us a perfect example of how "L'arte di arrangiarsi" can be fruitfully implemented. Filomena is an extremely poor young woman (born and grown up in a "basso napoletano" = one room living place occupied by one or more families). Luckily she is very beautiful (Sophia Loren is stunning in this part of the movie) and the circumstances offer her no better alternative then become a prostitute at 17 and the whorehouse's main attraction at 20. Sophia/Filomena is gorgeous, seductive and hilarious as she traps into marriage, faking imminent death, the flamboyant, egoistic and vain longtime lover Marcello/Don Mimí. He can save her from her miserable life and provide a better future for her and for her three children. When her game plan is discovered and she has to accept the cancellation of the marriage or go to jail, she changes strategy, implying that Mimí is father of one of her three sons, without telling however which one. This new situation provides, for both actors, the opportunity for another series of "head to head" confrontations, which are hilarious and sentimental at the same time. Filomena always loved Mimí and at the end, also Mimí realizes that Filomena, in spite of everything that happened, was and still is the best woman of his whole life. He has to admit that he also loves her, although in his own way. They get married again and, this time, both willingly. It looks like that, at this point, we have been served a sweet "Happy Ending" but it isn't so. Watch carefully the expressions of both characters during the closing sequence when, finally back from church and the colorful noise of the ceremony, they are resting in their newly-wed bedroom. Filomena, has crashed on a small sofa. Her face expresses the satisfaction of "mission accomplished" but also the overwhelming exhaustion after a lifetime battle against destiny. Don Mimí is sitting behind her on the bed, his eyes staring at the vacuum, guessing what the future will now have in store for them... Vittorio De Sica ends his wonderful movie whit this unusual twist, which leaves us also wondering... If you have a close understanding of the Italian language, as well as of Italian society and character, you will enormously enjoy this one. Unfortunately, even the best dubbing (I stumbled into a atrocious German version and even a Russian, where a guy with an extremely loud voice, shouts a translation on top of the original soundtrack...really nightmarish!) will not be able to convey to non-Italian speaking viewers, the true meaning and the little precious details of the story. I would like to recommend this movie especially to younger film fans, which have missed this wonderful season of Italian Cinema. Don't miss also De Sica's '63 "Ieri, oggi, domani" (another earlier Loren/Mastroianni great teaming-up) and '54 "L'oro di Napoli" (This one makes you really understand the true spirit of Naples, moreover you get the chance to enjoy the acting of unforgettable Eduardo de Filippo, play writer of the original "Filomena Marturano" stage-play). If you wonder how Sophia could manage a highly dramatic character and story, then '60 "La Ciociara" is the movie for you. I give this one an enthusiastic 9 out of 10.