Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

maestro7PL I just finished watching the stunning Blu Ray of the original Italian English-subtitled version of this film--the best version available. I do not understand all the naysayers reviewing this film. If you are a fan of Loren and Mastroianni, if you are a fan of DeSica, if you enjoy a good old-fashioned melodrama that will tear at your heart, you MUST see this film! To dismiss this film as Soviet propaganda, or as unrealistic, is like criticizing "The Little Mermaid" for having a singing mermaid and talking fish. It utterly misses the point. This movie contains one of the very best, if not THE best Sophia Loren performance on film. Henri Mancini's score is unforgettable. This film makes you care about the plight of both characters. It is available as part of the new "Sophia Loren Collection" box set, and for me, this, along with "Marriage Italian Style," is the "jewel" of the set. See it!

Armand meeting between two great actors and an impressive director. images from Italy and picture of Russia in the air of Cold War.a basic story about a couple, a war and a choice. a travel and the form of truth. beautiful music and force of unspoken words. that is all. or only gentle performance of Ludmila Savelieva. a great film. not for cast or dramatic slices, for the force of emotions or for the sunflower as vegetable testimonies about a tragedy. but only for its virtue to be a seed. a seed of questions and answers. an exercise of empathy. a sad love story in which love is more than feeling. a poem but just a very special poem. mixture of pure joy, shadows of war, a miracle and a search, it is homage to a sacrifice generation and reflection of deep need of sense in a chaotic world. nothing pink, nothing cold. only picture of a man, a young Russian woman who speaks Italian, a charming Sophia Loren and same Mastroianni. but the essence is possession of public.

David Traversa I suppose this film is just a maudlin melodrama, so is the music by Mancini. But then..., what a marvelous maudlin melodrama!... Why shouldn't it be? what's wrong with maudlin melodramas? If they are well done and authentic with their characters, if we get wrapped up with their emotions..., well, can you ask for anything more?I just saw this movie on "You Tube" for the second time. I remember seen it on late TV in Italy, many years ago, and the impression was so powerful that after somebody mentioned it a few days ago --I didn't remember any more this title until they mentioned it-- I decided to look for it and watch it again, to see after so many years if the impression was still the same (so many films are a total disappointment when seen for a second time years later), but it wasn't the case with this one.The story is so poignant that it can hold on its own very well no matter the change in mores and film technical improvements, it definitely grabs your interest till the very end (I must admit the film is far from perfect, since, for example, there are no indications of how many years went by or the new life style Sophia's character turns to after her Russian trip.It also has two climaxes, both marvelous, but I think they should have decided for one or the other, two climaxes is too much within the same movie, and the length should have been shortened quite a bit.Anyhow, forget about the lachrymose side of the story and submerge yourself in it (also get some Kleenex handy because everybody will need them, and plenty) and if you have to have a good cry, well, have it and enjoy it!! (After all is just a movie).

gregorybnyc So many reviews talk of the beauty of this film, but you can't see it on the horribly transferred DVD I saw from Netflix last weekend. So much of the color has been drained from the source, and you'd thought the movie was shot in experimental color in 1939 instead of 1970. Shame on the quick-buck types who have violated De Sica's original film. It's simply awful to watch. I had never seen this emotional film about an Italian couple who marry on the eve of his being sent to the Russian front. He never returns, and she never gives up hope of his return. The Loren/Mastroianni pairing has always been potent on the screen. And it is so here with Loren utterly magnificent as the loving wife and the grief-struck and abandoned woman later on. When the wife travels to Russia to find him years after the war, she's much older, and her life has been ruined. So the scene where she finally is connected to him through his Russian wife, and then sees him arriving at the local train station, is truly heartbreaking. While he has committed himself to his new life in Russia, marrying another woman and father two children, Loren's face shows her disappointment and overwhelming sense of sadness as she finally see that all that this woman has is now denied to her. Mastroianni has a bothersome role here. It is Loren who initially proposes they marry at the beginning of the film. He's just another callow fellow having a fling before he goes off to war. Later when he's nearly dead from walking through the frozen Russian winter, in retreat and trying to get back to Italy, his character finally gives up and falls down in the snow to die. He is saved by a beautiful Russian girl who drags him back to civilization. I guess, grateful for her ministrations, he eventually marries her and settles into a new life in Russia. So the character is rather passive to begin with, robbing Mastroianni of his usual comic bombast. In the end, you wonder why waste these two screen giants on this weeper of a movie. I have always adored Loren. Besides her jaw-dropping beauty, she always projected such warmth, generosity of spirit, a sense of fun, and when called for, she could be as great playing tragedy as any screen actress of any generation. TWO WOMEN proved that, and films such as A SPECIAL DAY and Marriage Italian STYLE only underlined the marvelous acting skills she possessed. So it's disappointing to see her giving her usual great self to a property that isn't quite worthy of her. It's worth seeing for two stars who can elevate any material they've been given, but wait for a better DVD remastering. This one will not do at all.