Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in a scene from the episode “Mara” in Yesterday, today, tomorrow (1963), directed by Vittorio DeSica. What about this shot? Sophia’s face is a bit funny!
Episode # 03: “Mara”, set in Rome
(from Yesterday today tomorrow, Italy-France / 1963)
Directed by: Vittorio De Sica.
Subject and Screenplay: Cesare Zavattini.
Cast: Sophia Loren (Mara), Marcello Mastroianni (Augusto), Tina Pica (Umberto’s grandmother), Giovanni Ridolfi (Umberto).
Production: Carlo Ponti for Film Company Champion / Les
Oscar in 1965 as best foreign film.
Concordia Films.
Duration: 45 ‘
The striptease scene is so famous that it has been honored in many films, including the very ironic scene directed by Robert Altman in Prêt-à-porter.
Mara and Augusto
Mara is a high-profile call girl who lives in a top-floor apartment in Piazza Navona in Rome. Augusto (Marcello Mastroianni) from Bologna is a loyal customer. Umberto (Giovanni Ridolfi), seminarian nephew of the elderly neighbor (Tina Pica), falls in love with Mara without being aware of his profession as a prostitute. Mara initially pretends nothing, but when she realizes that Umberto wants to leave the seminary studies to follow love, the grandmother who goes crying to Mara to tell her about the young man’s intention. The call girl then manages to convince Umberto advising him not to leave his studies and follow his vocation. In the end everything ends up for the better and remained alone with Augusto, Mara performs for him in a sensual striptease, without going beyond …
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
“The two interpreted together 14 films, in the first of which, the naval ambient comedy” Cuori sul mare “(1950), the 16-year-old Sophia is a simple appearance, again with her surname Scicolone. In 1954 the famous director Alessandro Blasetti assigns to the two, who are starting to enjoy a certain popularity, the roles of protagonists in two different episodes of the collection “Our Times”, then, sensing their potential, immediately joins them as a pair of primers in the great success “Too bad it’s a canaglia “(1954), with naive taxi driver Mastroianni and the splendid scoundrel Loren, supported by Vittorio De Sica for a trio that the great director creates and exalts. On the wave of success, the following year Mario Camerini entrusts the two” La bella mugnaia ”, tasty remake of his classic“ Three-pointed hat ”, twenty years before, while with more vehemence and intelligence Blasetti repeats his winning scheme with“ The luck of being a woman ”( 1956), full of winks to the previous film: “We went to steal a few times together?” Replies the beautiful Antoinette (Sophia Loren) to the photographer Corrado (Marcello Mastroianni) who wants to launch it in the cinema and gives her the tu.Nel Sophia si shockingly binds to the great producer Carlo Ponti, twenty years older than her and in the odor of bigamy at a time when divorce does not exist in Italy. The producer built a great career for her, so much so that she arrived at the Oscar in 1961 with “La ciociara”, once again directed by the great Vittorio De Sica. At that point she and Mastroianni, back from the worldwide success of “La Dolce Vita” (1960) by Federico Fellini, are the most famous Italian actors in the world, at the height of their fame, and in 1963 Ponti set up a director with De Sica. extraordinary flywheel of celebrity for his wife and for the star par excellence of the “sweet life” with “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”, three episodes set in Naples, Milan and Rome for a beautiful Sophia in great poise accompanied by a perfect Marcello and irresistible especially in the last episode in the role of the son of the Bolognese industrialist continually harassed by his father. The film goes down in history for Loren’s famous striptease scene, under the incredulous eyes of Mastroianni, in the third episode and brings to Ponti, De Sica and both actors the Oscar for best foreign film: an unprecedented triumph. The great success of the trio of wonders Mastroianni-Loren-De Sica is confirmed the following year with “Matrimonio all’italiana”, based on the comedy by Eduardo De Filippo “Filumena Marturano”, to resume five years later in “I girasoli”, not very successful melò where a woman finds with a new family the husband believed lost in Russia, who follows “These ghosts” of 1967, always taken from a text by Eduardo De Filippo, where however Marcello makes a short cameo, and the protagonists are Vittorio Gassman and Sophia Loren. In “The Wife of the Priest” (1971) Dino Risi tries the paper of the scandal telling the relationship between an attempted suicide and a priest of the friendly phone, in what is considered one of the least successful films of the couple, while in 1975 with “La pupa del gangster “by Capitani the two try the way of the film noir.In 1977, instead, with” A special day “the two actors with the guidance of Ettore Scola border on perfection, giving rise to one of their most mature, intense performances and far from their clichés, portraying a portrait of a homosexual who lost his job due to fascism and a housewife dominated by her husband, superficially fascinated by Mussolini and who, thanks to his friendship with the man next door, learns to broaden your horizons. An exemplary film for an exemplary couple, who bought up national and international awards, as well as a great success with the audience. The film received two nominations for an Oscar, for best foreign film and for Marcello Mastroianni for best leading actor; the Golden Globe for best foreign film to the director Ettore Scola; to Sophia Loren both the Silver Ribbon and the David di Donatello as best leading actress, and many other national and international awards and nominations. ”
Quote from the article: Marcello and Sophia on the roof of the world: the magical couple of Italian cinema, elegance, talent, friendship. 20 April 2015, assoladolcevita / domenico palattella
