Malena

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful movie!
Review: This is a great movie, It has a good story and really amazing characters.

Giuseppe Sulfaro played the little boy ni the movie so well, at times he was hella funny and at other times I just felt so bad for his character.

And Monica Bellucci was great, I don't think anyone else could havereally pulled off her roll. Even through everything, she made Malena was very dignified and made you want everything to turn out for the best.

Rating:
Summary: Malena...Monica Bellucci
Review: Listen all the guys of Amazon.com!!! Yes, this movie is one of the best and most inspiring I've seen in awhile. Although, I do tend to think anything Italian is the BEST! BUT once Monica Bellucci walks across your screen as Malena for the first time, you will not be able to look at anything else. She looks like heaven!!! If heaven looks anything like her, I sure hope I'm going there! And this considering she barely speaks in the film. When you look at her walking through this town, you know exactly what this obsessed with her boy is going through. If for no other reason, watch this one to see my imaginary wife MONICA BELLUCCI as "Malena" !!!

Rating:
Summary: A drama that is beautiful
Review: This is a beautiful movie that is really well done. It dose have some pretty funny parts in it as well. It is a mixture that is amazing. It is also a exotic type of film. But it was beautifully done.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the REAL version?
Review: I have just seen the wonderful Malena on dvd and was very much disappointed to see that 10 whole minutes are missing from this version available from Amazon. Obviously this ain't Amazon's fault but the silly censorship that think can control what other people see. Anyway i have no time in arguing about this issue,what i recommend is that you try getting your hands on the full uncut version take my word it's a one hundred times better. 4 stars not 5 for censoring it!

Rating:
Summary: What more can we ask from Tornatore?
Review: Another brilliant film by Tornatore. Its characters, set again in a small town in Sicily bring in the similar tone it did from his previous masterpiece Cinema Paradiso. With the beautiful cinematography, beautiful musical score, and the beautiful Bellucci lighting up the screen, what more can we ask from one of the best Italian directors today?

Rating:
Summary: A touching coming-of-age story
Review: "Malena," written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, is a visually beautiful story set in Sicily during World War II. The film tells the story of Renato Amoroso, a young adolescent boy whose heart and hormones are both racing out of control. The object of his attention is Malena (well played by Monica Bellucci), a stunningly beautiful young woman whose husband is off fighting in the war.

Giuseppe Sulfaro is very touching in the role of young Renato; his soulful eyes communicate more than pages full of dialogue ever could. The film has some uproarious comic interludes as Renato's father tries to deal with his horny son. Also amusing are the parodies of genre films that take place in Renato's imagination. The film is beautifully enhanced by the exquisite, Oscar-nominated cinematography by Lajos Koltai. And the sweet, melancholy score by the legendary Ennio Morricone (another Oscar nomination) helps tie the film together.

Overall, "Malena" is a well-made story of sexual awakening, social ostracism, and inner strength. Although at times the film seems a bit lightweight, I found it to be entertaining and touching. Fans of Italian cinema won't want to miss it.

Rating:
Summary: A visually arresting social commentary
Review: MALÈNA is a feast for the eyes - at least male eyes - and I'm not referring to just the Italian location of the film shoot.

The extraordinarily beautiful Monica Bellucci plays MALÈNA , a young woman living alone in an Italian coastal city in 1940. She's married to a local fellow, but he's off serving in Mussolini's army of conquest. Every day, as she languorously strolls through town, she attracts the admiring stare of every male, young or old, within eyesight radius. Among them is Renato, played by Giuseppe Sulfaro, who has only recently entered that hormonally tumultuous condition that we call Teenager. At first sight of MALÈNA, Renato is in Love. Well, let's not put too fine a point on it ... Lust, actually. (Of course, all the local womenfolk look daggers at the young lady. And, aren't all our menfolk Pigs?)

Early on in the film, it's reported that Malèna's husband has perished. From then on, Renato's interest in the girl becomes obsessive, but, at the same time, sweetly protective, as she struggles to live among the community. Rendered newly single by the circumstances of war, the men now wink and think her easily available, and the womenfolk think Tramp. Of course, Renato never actually talks to the object of his desire - he hasn't the nerve. The closest he comes to any sort of contact - outside of his feverishly erotic dreams, naturally - is the day she tells him to get out of her way as he blocks some steps she's descending. The storyline, and Malèna's fate, culminates in the German occupation of the town, and its subsequent liberation by the Allies. By that time, Malèna's position among the citizenry has been drastically transformed.

Male members of the viewing audience can only gawk at Monica's phenomenal charms with glazed eyes, and wonder where such a Siren was in their formative years. Female members are likely to inch away from their enraptured partners, and later exclaim vociferously that Malèna was the victim of her own beauty in the face of society's blatant sexism and moral double standard. (Oh, and ask off-handedly, "Is she prettier than I am?" Don't go there, guys.) Both points of view have considerable merit, though the latter is more substantive, surely.

The performances of the entire cast are all wonderful, especially those of Sulfaro, and Luciano Federico and Matilde Piana as Renato's long-suffering parents. Admittedly, Bellucci's speaking parts are minimal, but all she has to do is simply stroll along, stand still, sit down, walk upstairs, or smoke a cigarette, to get the point of her role across. Moreover, the cinematography and soundtrack are both impressive.

I might argue that this wasn't meant to be a comedy at all, but a drama with humorous elements - though I'd have to admit that this position is probably a stretch. Certainly, at the end, a certain truth is manifest through Renato. A man will eventually get over his first sexual enthrallment, but it will always remain in his memory as a small jewel to be fondly remembered as he matures into the ways of the world and the opposite sex. In this, it has similarity to a charming movie of 1991, RAMBLING ROSE.

I really liked this film, and only wish it had won some Academy Awards.

Rating:
Summary: bravisssimo !
Review: i saw this movie because of monica's picture on the poster. she is striking. but the movie is awesome...it's the coming of age story of a boy...the story of malena is told through the boys eyes, and we also discover alot about him...its equally funny and sad...and also a scathing commentary of the mussolini regime in w.w. 2 italy....see it now and see it again on video

Rating:
Summary: Mujer Bellisima!
Review: It begins like a whimsical, innocent story of a young boy Renatto Amoroso, (wonderfully played by Giuseppe Sulfaro) who becomes infatuated with an attractive and married woman, Malena Scordia (played perfectly by Monica Bellucci).

Our young hero, Renatto and his friends, which we'll refer to as the Horny Devil gang (but who can blame them), skip school just to see Malena walk from her home to the town square, and wonder what exactly she wore underneath those dresses that do not leave much to the imagination, while discussing aloud how they could "fulfill her every need". This from a bunch of punks. Well, funny punks.

And it plays on to the point of where one wonders, is this all there is? But no. Even though we see Malena walk, and walk some more, other developments in the story begin to take us in different directions that make us wonder how its all going to play out.

Monica Bellucci's portrayal of Malena seemed uninspired at first, even downplayed to a fault. It isn't until the end that we see (too graphically) what every woman in the town thinks of her. It is then that Bellucci's role becomes one of the most gut-wrenching and demanding ever recorded on film. Then, as if that wasn't enough, her reunion with her husband is enough to make this for many, a serious four-kleenex film.

Not to be compared with Cinema Paradiso as some tend to do. Completely different in tone and story, Tornatore delivers another beautiful story, with another great cast.

Rating:
Summary: Amercord Meets Cinema Paradiso
Review: Tornatore has made another wonderful evocation of Sicily during the war years. This time a young teenager fixates on a gorgeous young woman who becomes a widow and falls into destitution and prostitution in his small town, all under the envious eyes of the women of the village -- and the salacious gaze of the men. Only the boy sees through the gossip and follows her as she slowly loses her respectability and he becomes her guardian angel.

This beautiful film has many similarities to Cinema Paradiso, and many scenes that harken back to Amercord, especially in the secondary scenes of the boy with his family. Malena, the film, also contains an ending strong in emotion that leaves the audience enraptured and grabbing for handkerchiefs.

Once again, Tornatore spins a tale of yearning, tragedy, forgivenes, and remembrance that takes its place square in the middle of the great stream of fine Italian film stretching back to Open City. If it doen't quite reach the heights of Cinema Paradiso, Malena remains a totally satisfying, tender, and highly emotional film that will delight any filmgoer looking for the finest in cinematic art.