971. Marriage Italian Style (1964)

Starring: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Running Time: 102 mins

Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio all’italiana) is an Italian film about a man whose on-off relationship with a young girl over the course of two decades ultimately leads to huge legal complications when she unexpectedly returns to his life with a big problem.

Well, this is both a fun romantic comedy and an interesting character-driven drama. The performances and writing is very strong, and despite being slightly on the melodramatic, preposterous side, this is a largely entertaining film to watch.

The main characters in this film are definitely the most interesting thing about it. Marcello Mastroianni, who is fantastic, plays a man who is both down-to-earth as well as a playboy, which makes him a brilliant anti-hero for you to awkwardly support as he comes up against all sorts of adversity.

Meanwhile, Sophia Loren also puts in a decent show as a completely over-the-top woman who seems determined to get the man she wants (but in the right way), and it’s that contrast between a passionate and needy character that makes her such a laugh to watch throughout.

The atmosphere of this film is also, luckily, mostly on the lighter side. Particularly in the opening stages of the story, it’s more of a carefree, seductive Italian romance, and for that, it’s a lot of fun to watch, and although it really does descend into a very melodramatic feel later on in the film, it always comes back round to the more entertaining romance as the main story.

The only big problem with this film is that its story is just a little preposterous. Again, in the opening stages of the film, it’s carefree enough for you to accept the silliness of the romance, but in the latter stages, when everything gets a little bit heavier, that unbelievable story just doesn’t sit right, leaving this an ultimately tough film to really care about.

Overall, this gets a 7.1, because despite its preposterous story and occasional melodrama, this is largely a light, fun and interesting enough film to be properly entertaining to watch.