Monica Bellucci in "Malena."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film an: Stars: Monica Bellucci Director: Giuseppe Tornatore Rated: R, with nudity, sexual themes, rough language and violence Length: 92 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(February 2, 2001) -- For Malena, director Giuseppe Tornatore returns to the rustic, sun-drenched and oh-so-sensual small-town Sicilian life he fondly recalled in Cinema Paradiso.

This time, he uses the golden early '40s as the backdrop to a comic tale of sexual awakening that shifts to wartime reality as fascism scars his country.

The result is a nostalgic film with much of the zest, images and earthy characters of the films of the late Federico Fellini, but with less subtlety, originality or complexity. However, you can fall short of the master and still make an artful, entertaining film.

Malena may first strike viewers as an Italian variation of Summer of '42, a coming-of-age story of a boy who becomes infatuated with an older, unreachable town beauty.

Here the boy is 13-year-old Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro), who narrates his story starting on the spring day in 1941 when Mussolini declares war on France and Britain. He remembers it, though, as the day he got his first bicycle.

More important, it's the day he joins the town's other teen boys along an ocean-front wall to ogle the luscious Malena as she strolls to town.

Malena (Monica Bellucci) is the newly arrived wife of a soldier who has gone off to war. Her walk through town gets the kind of attention Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida got in their early films: Men drool and women stare with disdain.

Malena immediately becomes the object of Renato's first fantasies, and much peep-hole spying ensues.

But after Malena's husband is killed, she's victimized by bureaucrats, who demand sexual favors, and by their jealous wives, who spread malicious gossip.

Only then does Renato see Malena as a vulnerable individual, not just a fantasy object.

The film, adapted from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni, then moves suddenly into darker matters, before shifting into a surprising finale.

Tornatore directs with a fine sense of period detail and a great eye for warm, sensual images. He also guides newcomer Sulfaro to a funny and affecting performance as Renato.

For most of the film, Bellucci needs only to look stunningly sexy. The film's powerful last act, though, is more demanding, and she's up to the task.

With a nod to Cinema Paradiso, Tornatore also pays a brief tribute to the movies of his youth. (As part of his robust fantasy life, his young hero imagines himself the star of several favorite films, including John Ford's Stagecoach.)

Veteran film composer Ennio Morricone provides a poignant, melodic soundtrack that's akin to his famous music for Paradiso. Here, though, he counters with traces of the playful circuslike music that Nina Rota so effectively contributed to Fellini's masterpieces.