A romantic drama, set in beautiful Northern Italy, directed by Vittorio De Sica, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Faye Dunaway... Seems like a recipe for success, right?
Alas, no. It just doesn't work at all.
You can't feel much for the two main characters because you don't really get to know them. Valerio (Mastroianni) is an engineer who lives with a girlfriend in Milan. Julia (Dunaway) is a divorced, American designer. They can afford to stay at gigantic villas and luxury alpine retreats. That's all the viewer gets. Valerio seems nice, if you ignore the fact that he's cheating on his girlfriend with Julia. Julia comes across as cold. She does a couple of things that seem kind (saving a mongrel from a dog-catcher, giving a maid a bunch of her fancy, expensive clothes) but then she also steals a guy's suitcase. Oh yeah, she comes close to pushing Valerio off a cliff at one point too. Oopsie!
Julia has one of those mysterious movie diseases, where the person is just a few weeks away from dropping dead but looks perfectly fine and exhibits no signs of illness or fatigue whatever. It's almost an hour in before Julia reveals her secret (but of course, if you watch the film now, it's given away in every description).
They fall madly in love in a week but what is their attraction based on, other than the physical? When they first get together Julia says, "Let's not say too much," but we could've learned more about them through their conversations, if they ever had any real conversations.
When Valerio answers the phone call from Maggie but then doesn't tell Julia about it, does he do it because he's selfish and wants to keep Julia with him or because he's trying to do what he thinks Julia wants? You just don't know him well enough to judge.
A couple of scenes that remind you that you're watching a 1960s Italian film occur on Julia and Valerio's first night together, when they attend a dinner party that seems like something right out of a Fellini movie. The well-off, gaudily attired and styled guests watch a slide show of ancient, erotic statuary and architecture, accompanied by a lecture. Afterwards, everyone draws cards for an adult version of "Seven Minutes in Heaven." Julia contemplates taking part in the game. Valerio (as yet unaware that she is engaging in her last hurrah) is turned off by the spectacle and angry that she would consider it.
The scene in front of the light of the projector, where Julia starts moaning about how she doesn't want Valerio's sympathy and he screams about how he loves her and then they sink to the table, kissing, was meant to elicit an emotional response and it did... It made me want to reach through the TV and slap them both! Get a grip, you frickin' drama queens!
Nitpicky thing that bugged me: There's a couple of slightly fuzzy close-ups of Julia towards the end of the film (when she's on the phone).
It's disappointing when you watch a film that turns out to not be very good. It's even more annoying when the movie has many of the elements that make up a good film; a potentially interesting premise, attractive leads, who are also good actors, a director who is capable of greatness, scenic locations, and it still turns out to be a dud. It's odd that it took 5 screenwriters to write this script. What's odder still is that it was adapted from a play so they weren't even writing a screenplay from scratch!
I guess that old saying about "too many cooks" is true.
Alas, no. It just doesn't work at all.
You can't feel much for the two main characters because you don't really get to know them. Valerio (Mastroianni) is an engineer who lives with a girlfriend in Milan. Julia (Dunaway) is a divorced, American designer. They can afford to stay at gigantic villas and luxury alpine retreats. That's all the viewer gets. Valerio seems nice, if you ignore the fact that he's cheating on his girlfriend with Julia. Julia comes across as cold. She does a couple of things that seem kind (saving a mongrel from a dog-catcher, giving a maid a bunch of her fancy, expensive clothes) but then she also steals a guy's suitcase. Oh yeah, she comes close to pushing Valerio off a cliff at one point too. Oopsie!
Julia has one of those mysterious movie diseases, where the person is just a few weeks away from dropping dead but looks perfectly fine and exhibits no signs of illness or fatigue whatever. It's almost an hour in before Julia reveals her secret (but of course, if you watch the film now, it's given away in every description).
They fall madly in love in a week but what is their attraction based on, other than the physical? When they first get together Julia says, "Let's not say too much," but we could've learned more about them through their conversations, if they ever had any real conversations.
When Valerio answers the phone call from Maggie but then doesn't tell Julia about it, does he do it because he's selfish and wants to keep Julia with him or because he's trying to do what he thinks Julia wants? You just don't know him well enough to judge.
A couple of scenes that remind you that you're watching a 1960s Italian film occur on Julia and Valerio's first night together, when they attend a dinner party that seems like something right out of a Fellini movie. The well-off, gaudily attired and styled guests watch a slide show of ancient, erotic statuary and architecture, accompanied by a lecture. Afterwards, everyone draws cards for an adult version of "Seven Minutes in Heaven." Julia contemplates taking part in the game. Valerio (as yet unaware that she is engaging in her last hurrah) is turned off by the spectacle and angry that she would consider it.
The scene in front of the light of the projector, where Julia starts moaning about how she doesn't want Valerio's sympathy and he screams about how he loves her and then they sink to the table, kissing, was meant to elicit an emotional response and it did... It made me want to reach through the TV and slap them both! Get a grip, you frickin' drama queens!
Nitpicky thing that bugged me: There's a couple of slightly fuzzy close-ups of Julia towards the end of the film (when she's on the phone).
It's disappointing when you watch a film that turns out to not be very good. It's even more annoying when the movie has many of the elements that make up a good film; a potentially interesting premise, attractive leads, who are also good actors, a director who is capable of greatness, scenic locations, and it still turns out to be a dud. It's odd that it took 5 screenwriters to write this script. What's odder still is that it was adapted from a play so they weren't even writing a screenplay from scratch!
I guess that old saying about "too many cooks" is true.