"Divorzio all'italiana" or "Divorce Italian Style" is an Italian Italian-language movie from 1961, so this one will soon be 60 years old. The director is Pietro Germi, not necessarily a name you think of immediately when you think of the defining filmmakers of Italian cinema like Antonioni, Fellini, Argento, maybe Rohmer, but probably in the next category then. He is also part of the writing team and it is not too uncommon to see really quite a few writers working on one movie as for Italian films, this was a bit of a rule back then and not the exception. It also means more shared praise for everybody as the three writers here won a screenplay Oscar for their work, perhaps a bit helped with the fact that all the big American players awards-wise that year ended up in the other screenplay category, but still a big triumph. In general, this movie received a great deal of awards recognition. Germi also got in for Best Director and for actor Mastroianni, this was an effort that got him a lead actor nomination, apparently the very first for anybody for a completely foreign language performance plus a Golden Globe win. Daniela Rocca, who plays his wife in here, received a BAFTA nomination at least and she was way younger than i thought she would be when I watched the film, barely in her mid-20s. It is certainly a bit ironic and also tragic to read that she totally fell for Germi during the filming of this film and her unrequited love clearly hurt her mental state and probably also kept her career, maybe even her life shorter than it could have been. Oh well, lets not get any further into detail about that. Italy picked another film as their official submission to the Oscars that year, which even if that one also managed 2 nominations, may not have been the greatest choice as this one here could have won foreign language Feature over the actual French winner. We'll never know.
Back to the movie. Mastroianni really is the film from beginning to end during these 105 minutes. Also he reminded me a bit of Buster Keaton physically at times. Anyway, this is the story of a man who is married to a semi-attractive wife who is seemingly crazy about him, but he not so much about her. His focus is clearly way more on the attractive very young cousin as he keeps heading upstairs to watch the latter sleep and changes looks with her. This is also where I can mention the comedy aspect right away. There is drama in this movie and I will get to that later, but there is also a whole lot of comedy from beginning to end. With the peeking scene I just mentioned, it must be a bit of a generic thing because the protagonist's dad has a tendency to do the exact same. As for Mastroianni, there are scenes when we find out he is also quite a narcissist, maybe even a sociopath who loves really nobody except himself. This is especially funny when he talks about his physical appearance as I believe back in the day Mastroianni was seen by many of a sex icon and highly desirable man, so seeing him funnily and (intendedly clumsy) mock himself about how attractive he is, that was great fun.
Another fairly lengthy reference I liked was how the film reference "La dolce vita", probably Mastroianni's career-defining film from one year earlier, and there was so much of this film in terms of talk (about running time e.g.), posters and even characters watching it at a theater that it was already then obvious apparently, it was a bit of a classic. Of course, you never saw Mastroianni referenced whatsoever despite playing the main character. Okay, that was not necessarily funny, or just in a special way, but there are other funny moments. Funny characters like the not very Italian looking attorney or Mr. Grimface are included as running gags on several occasions. Or some slapstick at times even involving the main character's sister and how she is constantly caught in the act with her lover by the main character and feels so embarrassed while the protagonist (who catches them) really couldn't care less. This is a bit of a running gag, so I was slightly surprised by the fact that we eventually find out he left the sister and they tried to give it at least a bit of a plot. Anyway, away from that back to the key story. i already said the main character was a bit of a psychopath and this fits in nicely with his idea of divorcing his wife, which was not an option however, so he had to find another way. And he informs himself on what happens from a legal perspective if one kills his partner when catching her in the act with somebody else. He is willing to accept these not very few years in jail for getting away from his wife and with the beautiful young cousin Angela. It sure helps him that his wife indeed does have an affair with a former soldier, now artist. Initially, he is not amused at all and there is quite a contradiction about him drooling all over Angela, but not willing to accept his wife's cheating. There is even a scene when he checks out her effect on other men and if they still see her as desirable. But the he quickly moves on to his murder plot. By the way I kinda kept wondering how all the men had certain girls they were after here, but nobody really cared in depth about the stunning young maid. There is just one scene when the wife's lover gets closer to her and Mastroianni's character interrupts them in the most hilarious manner. Another funny scene. One character who is not at all about funny and enters the film in the final third is the lover's wife who is not amused at all about what her man does. There is no elaboration on how she found out and how she even knew Ferdinando (Mastroianni) knew as well, so the humiliation scene at the funeral felt a bit unrealistic, but it is okay I guess. The funeral by the way was for Angela's father, who accidentally got a love letter from his daughter to Ferdinando and died from a heart attack as a consequence, so you see Ferdinando's path is kinda plastered with death even. So no surprise he really shoots his wife at the end and does get away with his scheme. But even there with a scene when two people are murdered (the lover's wife is living our "hero"s dream before that), the writers make sure it won't be too serious or shocking. We see no blood, we only hear the gunshots. After a brief prison sentence, the main character is free, marries Angela and happily spends his freetime with her on a boat. But just like that, Germi won't let the dirty rotten protagonist not get away and the final shot is very telling. You will know what I mean when you see it. Overall I think this was a pretty entertaining watch from beginning to end and I can see why it won an Oscar and has such a high rating here on imdb. I would not say it was really great and it did not make me want to see Mastroianni's other "Italian Way" stuff immediately, but it was pretty good with some great moments and it sure is one of the defining films from the then booking Italian comedy genre. I was lucky and happy to see it on a big screen on the occasion of a film retrospective here in Berlin. If you get the same occasion, don't miss out! It will be an entertaining evening for sure.
Back to the movie. Mastroianni really is the film from beginning to end during these 105 minutes. Also he reminded me a bit of Buster Keaton physically at times. Anyway, this is the story of a man who is married to a semi-attractive wife who is seemingly crazy about him, but he not so much about her. His focus is clearly way more on the attractive very young cousin as he keeps heading upstairs to watch the latter sleep and changes looks with her. This is also where I can mention the comedy aspect right away. There is drama in this movie and I will get to that later, but there is also a whole lot of comedy from beginning to end. With the peeking scene I just mentioned, it must be a bit of a generic thing because the protagonist's dad has a tendency to do the exact same. As for Mastroianni, there are scenes when we find out he is also quite a narcissist, maybe even a sociopath who loves really nobody except himself. This is especially funny when he talks about his physical appearance as I believe back in the day Mastroianni was seen by many of a sex icon and highly desirable man, so seeing him funnily and (intendedly clumsy) mock himself about how attractive he is, that was great fun.
Another fairly lengthy reference I liked was how the film reference "La dolce vita", probably Mastroianni's career-defining film from one year earlier, and there was so much of this film in terms of talk (about running time e.g.), posters and even characters watching it at a theater that it was already then obvious apparently, it was a bit of a classic. Of course, you never saw Mastroianni referenced whatsoever despite playing the main character. Okay, that was not necessarily funny, or just in a special way, but there are other funny moments. Funny characters like the not very Italian looking attorney or Mr. Grimface are included as running gags on several occasions. Or some slapstick at times even involving the main character's sister and how she is constantly caught in the act with her lover by the main character and feels so embarrassed while the protagonist (who catches them) really couldn't care less. This is a bit of a running gag, so I was slightly surprised by the fact that we eventually find out he left the sister and they tried to give it at least a bit of a plot. Anyway, away from that back to the key story. i already said the main character was a bit of a psychopath and this fits in nicely with his idea of divorcing his wife, which was not an option however, so he had to find another way. And he informs himself on what happens from a legal perspective if one kills his partner when catching her in the act with somebody else. He is willing to accept these not very few years in jail for getting away from his wife and with the beautiful young cousin Angela. It sure helps him that his wife indeed does have an affair with a former soldier, now artist. Initially, he is not amused at all and there is quite a contradiction about him drooling all over Angela, but not willing to accept his wife's cheating. There is even a scene when he checks out her effect on other men and if they still see her as desirable. But the he quickly moves on to his murder plot. By the way I kinda kept wondering how all the men had certain girls they were after here, but nobody really cared in depth about the stunning young maid. There is just one scene when the wife's lover gets closer to her and Mastroianni's character interrupts them in the most hilarious manner. Another funny scene. One character who is not at all about funny and enters the film in the final third is the lover's wife who is not amused at all about what her man does. There is no elaboration on how she found out and how she even knew Ferdinando (Mastroianni) knew as well, so the humiliation scene at the funeral felt a bit unrealistic, but it is okay I guess. The funeral by the way was for Angela's father, who accidentally got a love letter from his daughter to Ferdinando and died from a heart attack as a consequence, so you see Ferdinando's path is kinda plastered with death even. So no surprise he really shoots his wife at the end and does get away with his scheme. But even there with a scene when two people are murdered (the lover's wife is living our "hero"s dream before that), the writers make sure it won't be too serious or shocking. We see no blood, we only hear the gunshots. After a brief prison sentence, the main character is free, marries Angela and happily spends his freetime with her on a boat. But just like that, Germi won't let the dirty rotten protagonist not get away and the final shot is very telling. You will know what I mean when you see it. Overall I think this was a pretty entertaining watch from beginning to end and I can see why it won an Oscar and has such a high rating here on imdb. I would not say it was really great and it did not make me want to see Mastroianni's other "Italian Way" stuff immediately, but it was pretty good with some great moments and it sure is one of the defining films from the then booking Italian comedy genre. I was lucky and happy to see it on a big screen on the occasion of a film retrospective here in Berlin. If you get the same occasion, don't miss out! It will be an entertaining evening for sure.