Plot intro
A mother and daughter, Cesira (Sophia Loren) and Rosetta (Eleonora Brown) leave Rome to escape the World War 2 bombings and head to the district of Ciociaria. There they try to survive as bomber planes, German soldiers and Moroccan Goumiers ransack the land and its people.
The name Sophia Loren conveys glamour, opulence, beauty and probably the most preposterous thing about Two Women (and there are many preposterous things in Two Women) is that her character, Cesira, manages to survive bombs, guns, hunger and gang rape whilst looking absolutely stunning with a full face of make-up. I’m very interested to know when Loren managed to apply her lipstick while a group of Moroccan soldiers decided to permanently traumatise her and her 12-year-old daughter in a bombed-out church. Their hair becomes a bit matted though, so I suppose that is the ultimate symbol of mental devastation.
As you might be able to tell from my sardonic wit, I didn’t like Two Women all that much. It’s Sophia Loren’s only win and to give her credit, she’s immensely charismatic and dominates the film. It’s also the first acting Oscar win for a completely non-English language film. In the Best Actress canon, this will only happen twice more, with Marlee Matlin doing American Sign Language in Children of a Lesser God and Marion Cotillard’s French-speaking performance in La Vie En Rose. It’s a rare achievement and not one to be ignored.
But the fundamental problem with Two Women is that it doesn’t really go anywhere. The titular mother and daughter leave Rome, meet people, have some horrible things happen to them, and then the film just sort of stops after they have been completely brutalised. It feels like a series of episodic vignettes but without much connection between them other than the theme of warfare and survival.
The film also does nothing to rid the world of the Italian stereotype. In fact, it pretty much celebrates it. Characters shout and sing with histrionic passion, flit between fury and euphoria at the drop of a hat, slap each other (unconvincingly), talk over each other, cross themselves at any given moment and even the thumb-on-fingers hand gesture has the nerve to make several appearances. As far as I can see (full disclosure, I’m not Italian), Italian culture is indeed open, honest, and passionate, with a focus on family, community and expression. But judging by this film, the Hollywood stereotype of Italians as chaotic, unorganised, impossibly attractive and over-emotional can be solely blamed on Two Women. Even at the film’s darkest moments, we found ourselves giggling.
In a historical context, however, I can see why Two Women was such a hit. As we saw in Roman Holiday, Italy was working hard to rebuild itself post-war, and the arts were a big part of that. By some miracle, a great deal of its fabulous historic sights had survived the onslaught of war, so film-making (La Dolce Vita had been released just the year before Two Women) became an integral part of a newly-democratic Italy’s establishment as a hub of tourism, culture and beauty. Rather than glamorise the country, Two Women puts a spotlight on the darker elements of Italy’s recent history, particularly the lesser-talked-about Marrocchinate, a period in which French-Moroccan soldiers raped and murdered shockingly vast numbers of people across Italy. The exact numbers are hard to determine but many think as many as 60,000 women aged between 11 and 86 became victims of their abuses. Indeed, the climactic gang rape scene is the focal point of the film. Watching it without knowing the historical context, it feels disconnected to the rest of the film and pretty gratuitous (although it is mercifully brief and leaves more to the imagination). A quick bit of internet research shows that Two Women is contributing to Italian cinema by reminding international audiences that within this beautiful and comparatively young country lies pockets of trauma.
But overall this is one of my least favourite films of the Best Actress list. As I said Loren puts in a lot of effort but I struggled to take to the overacting, the one-dimensional characters and disjointed episodic nature of the story-telling.
Although the gang rape scene should come with a trigger warning, I do think it’s pretty well executed. Director Vittorio de Sica wisely maintains the Ancient Greek principle of showing the build-up but not the action and uses camera work to suggest violence and terror as opposed to going too gratuitous. But anyone with similar past traumas may wish to avoid watching it.
Several times a character slaps another but the slapped person barely moves their face or reacts in any way, giving it an comic effect that felt more like a French and Saunders sketch.
A rare occasion where Paul and I disagree! No, Two Women isn’t a wonderful piece of cinema but I found myself drawn into the story unfolding in front of me. To be fair I think it’s largely due to Loren who is magnetic from the word go when she shags a buff foreman in some kind of dark coalyard (this event plays zero part in the rest of the story so who knows why it happens).
I think it’s a small but intriguing film, the story of Cesira’s indomitability is powerful as she leads her daughter through broken trains, bombed out fields and eventually to where most of the action takes place, a sort of half-way house where soldiers from both sides of the conflict appear. There are similarities to the great Brecht play Mother Courage and Her Children, and I think this largely shows in how we witness Cesira’s refusal to give up when facing calamity after calamity.
However I felt the film to be disjointed, with the bulk of the scenes being a quite interesting look into how people survived in a no-man’s-land area. They meet British soldiers and Russians and Germans. There’s a sort-of love interest in Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who brings a sweetness and innocence to Cesira’s life and I think if the film had been content to stay in this area, it would have been smaller but stronger. Ultimately though, they build towards a joint rape scene (which as Paul says is mercifully not really shown), and it was at this point I felt the film had gone too far.
I believe that all art has a responsibility. It can show the darkest parts of life (rape, murder etc) but it should never leave an audience feeling without hope. This is my own personal manifesto, and I’m aware not everyone may agree. But to me, leaving an audience hopeless is irresponsible and wrong. In this film, we do not get to see Cesira triumph over the hurdles she has faced, instead we see her degraded alongside her daughter who she loves most. The only ‘win’ she has by the end is managing to get through emotionally to her daughter and they weep together - but it’s not enough.
Loren is fantastic, and even in the scene after the rape where she is furious and full of rage, I felt the power in Cesira. But by the end, she is broken too and I don’t really see the point of telling such a story. Even Brecht knew to end Mother Courage with the eponymous character continuing on, despite all the knocks and blows she’d received.
We’ve seen this a lot - in BUtterfield 8 and Room At The Top - women trying to succeed and being quelled. I don’t like it. It’s almost as if the cinema of the time were trying to tell women to stay in their place and not reach for more. I’m now hungry for some more revolutionary storytelling - women who aren’t angels but still manage to succeed. I’m thinking now of Michelle Yeoh who (at the time of writing) has just won Best Actress for Evelyn in Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. It’s a complex and flawed character who ultimately wins - and it’s what I want to see.
So - a great introduction to Sophia Loren who is thrillingly magnetic, but enough of this misogynistic storytelling! Let the women win!
It really is Sophia Loren herself for me. She shines off the screen with a realism and power that is wonderful to see.
Equally like Paul, it’s the rubbish slapping. Who gets slapped and doesn’t move their face?? Thankfully Dallas and Dynasty were just down the path, ready to school us on how a dramatic slap should look.
Mark
6/10
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