Divorzio all’italiana
I have absolutely no idea why this movie is in the Criterion Collection. Basically it’s a comedy and nothing more. Sometimes there are comedies that transport something (and in many aspects, comedies are more serious than tragedies when it comes to that), but “Divorzio all’italiana” is just a comedy which does nothing else but make you laugh. Apart from that, sure Criterion released stuff like “Charade”, but typically they only release especially meaningful or artsy films. “Divorzio all’italiana” is none of that, and its stylishness comes from the fact that nowadays we are in love with the style from the 60s, no matter whether it’s American or Italian or anything else. Its story is not especially deep, just entertaining. But then again, Criterion also released “Kind Hearts and Coronets” – another wonderful satirical murder comedy, and one could argue that both films come with a good chunk of social commentary, the kind that Criterion likes.
In fact, it was so entertaining that I did not want to go to sleep and absolutely had to finish watching the film. It’s storyline is full of creativity and its irony culminates in the last 10 seconds before the end. Words cannot describe how cunning I thought the whole film was, and how much I liked the man’s imaginary murder plans. The highlight of the film is not Mr. Dashing (aka Marcello Mastroianni), but clearly Daniela Rocca who was uglified in the most amusing way. It is quite obvious that she is actually a beautiful woman. Somehow it makes the story even better that they did not choose an ugly woman to play the role, but to uglify a diva with a female moustache, a terrible hairstyle and huge eyebrows. She is just so incredibly funny in the way she does not realize her husband’s annoyance with her. Actually, except for Angela who appears fairly dumb, I think that all the characters are very likable. You want to root for the main character (but not really) and even more so you actually also want to root for his wife whose only fault was that she loved too strongly and wanted too much love.
The film is definitely worth a look, especially as a foreign mindless comedy. I totally enjoyed it, but actually “Kind Hearts and Coronets” was even better, if it is comparable at all. In “Divorzio all’italiana” the key word is “italiana” – it’s the Italian/Sicilian antics which make the film into what it is.