ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Griff Lees 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.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

frankwiener I just had the privilege of watching a double feature on "TCM on Demand" that consisted of two of my two favorite Sophia Loren films, "Two Women" (1960) and "A Special Day" (1977). Unlike many of her comedies and lighthearted films, these two movies highlighted her most serious, dramatic roles, and, in my view, her very best performances. Yes, she is certainly a magnificent looking woman, but these two accomplishments by themselves prove that she is also an outstanding professional who gives 100% of herself with superior results.While the production of "Two Women" preceded "A Special Day" by seventeen years, the first took place in 1944 during the closing days of World War II following the Allied victory at Monte Cassino in Italy while the second occurred in 1938 when Hitler visited Rome during the early stages of the same war. Both films were produced by Loren's husband, Carlo Ponti, and superbly illustrate the tragic, human cost of a prolonged and very brutal war, one at the beginning of the conflict and the other near its end. In "Two Women", Ms. Loren's marvelous effort earned her a well deserved Oscar as the first performance to win the award in a foreign language film. Her outstanding work was was augmented by the overall, excellent direction of Vittorio de Sica ("Bicycle Thieves", "Umberto D") and the moving musical score of Armando Trovajoli, who has accumulated a staggering 196 films, both American and Italian, to his credit. She also received very impressive support by Eleanora Brown, who appeared in her very first film at age twelve.Without revealing too much of the climactic scene in the abandoned, bombed out church, the director's skill at developing an ominous atmosphere, including the disturbed birds through the opening in the roof, allowed the viewer to expect trouble but not necessarily the calamity of the shocking episode that followed. Then, soon after the incident, we observe the forms of two dehumanized women as if they are inanimate rocks, drained of life itself, cast to the side of the road. After seeing the movie, I did some research on the actual circumstances of "Marocchinate", a term the Italians gave to the brutal, barbaric campaign of Moroccan troops under the command of the French in which they allegedly raped thousands of Italian women and murdered hundreds of civilian men who tried to protect them. Many of the attacks occurred in the region called Ciociaria, located to the southeast of Rome in central Italy, hence the actual title of the movie, "La Ciociara", or the women of Ciociaria. I was very surprised that these atrocities under the command of the Allies have not been officially and sufficiently documented. The silent reaction from the French to the events depicted in this film is even more shocking. It is not too late for the French government to address these very serious allegations more directly and more thoroughly.

writers_reign At twenty-five Sophia Loren was not supposed to be an Actress, she was supposed to be another Sylvano Mangano (another 'sex symbol' who turned out to be a fine actress) or Anita Ekberg but lo and behold she unleashes a powerful, moving and ultimately Oscar-winning performance, the first ever Best Actress gong for an actress in a foreign film (Simone Signoret beat her to it by a couple of years but she was a French actress appearing in a British film). Although she is playing down her sultry siren image both her beauty and sensuality shine through her 'ordinary' housewife persona and if anything her towering performance tends to unbalance a mostly ho-hum cast with, of course, the exception of Eleanora Brown playing her daughter. There's not a lot that's new or that CAN be new about the 'war is hell' story but nevertheless Loren keeps us engrossed.

SnoopyStyle It's WWII. Cesira (Sophia Loren) flees Rome away from the allied bombing for the sake of her 13 year old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). She's a widow of a loveless marriage and she's the object of everyman's desire. They go back to Cesira's home village. The idealistic anti-Fascist Michele Di Libero (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls for her. Mussolini is imprisoned and Michele is overjoyed. They even help a couple of English soldiers. The situation deteriorates as the war closes in and food becomes scarce. A group of Germans force Michele to lead them back to their lines. As the Americans approach, the villagers clear out. Cesira decides to go back to Rome on their own. They take shelter in a bombed out church where they are both raped by a large group of Arab soldiers.Sophie Loren is magnetic. She powers every scene. Eleonora Brown does a good job keeping up. The story meanders a little. There are a lot of unrelated things that pop up. All of a sudden, there's a Russian deserter. The randomness sometimes help the story. When the story moves to the German occupied town, it really starts to move. The tension gets ratcheted up higher and higher.

jzappa Sophia Loren, aside from being one of the most sumptuously sexy women I have ever seen, proves herself here to be a tremendous actress. She has a melodramatic Italian flair that impassions her lovably aggressive character, a widowed shopkeeper in Rome during the Allied bombing in WWII, who flees with her beloved daughter to her impoverish mountainous native region. Throughout the story, she proves to be a strong woman, seasoned by pain and not having lost the fire and fight in her.Like many European films of its time, Two Women is all about the characters and the current on which they flow through the film, a realistic capsule of a time and place. Vittorio De Sica, who made the beautifully small-scale film The Bicycle Thief, which is about a relationship between father and son, forms a companion piece with Two Women, which is about a relationship between mother and daughter. He addresses strikingly the unbearable love between a parent and their child.Truly one of the greatest Italian films, this is an absorbing, emotional, modest journey with wonderful music; coarse, down-to-earth cinematography from the wonderful old days of gritty film prints and old school hands-on editing; incredible acting not only from Loren but from the young actress playing her daughter, who drastically transforms; and also from Jean- Paul Belmondo, who convincingly plays completely against type; and a beautifully emotional final shot. For those who feel detached from older foreign films, especially neo-realist, I have yet to see an Italian neo-realist film any more alive than this one!