A
Directed by Pietro Germi
One of the great Pietro Germi's greatest achievements, "Divorce Italian Style" is the epitome of the 'commedia all'italiana,' a rollicking comedy of errors which hilariously roasts Sicily's machismo society.
None other than the face of Italian film himself Marcello Mastroianni plays Fefe Cefalu, a thirty-something member of the monied class in the Sicilian town of Agromonte.
Despite his bourgeois credentials, Fefe's family's wealth is quickly dwindling and he and his overbearing and suffocating wife Rosalia and the rest of his family are now confined to a single, crumbling wing of the old Cefalu Namor. Exasperated by his wife, furstrated by his aimless existence and hopelessly attracted to his nuble, underage niece Angela, Fefe decides to take action and break free of his opressingly dull existence. The first step in his reinvention is to find a way to ditch Rosalia, no small feat in Sicily where the law forbids divorce. Fefe must therefore turn to the only viable option to free himself of the bonds of holy matrimony--murder!
"Divorce Italian Style" takes a rather dark premise and turns it into something irreverent and genuinely funny, a molotov coctail thrown in the direction of outdated legal and social conventions. In "Divorce Italian Style" Germi, like in most of his comedies, mines heavy, almost sacrosaint material in search of humour, in this case relying on the legal bonds of marriage to provide him with some comic material. It is important to note that Germi does not glamorize or condone adultery in "Divorce Italian Style," unfaithfulness being shown here as a losers game. Rather, he uses it as a platform by which to relentlessly skewer Sicillian social mores, taking hilarious jabs at anyone he sees fit to mock along the way. You can almost feel him giggling gleefully as Fefe, barred by social and legal conventions from divorcing his unfaithful spouse, is encouraged by the villagers to go out and kill her to avenge his honor. Germi takes great pleasure in pointing out the rampant double standards endorsed by the residents of Agromonte and pulls no punches when mining them for comic relief.
One of the great Pietro Germi's greatest achievements, "Divorce Italian Style" is the epitome of the 'commedia all'italiana,' a rollicking comedy of errors which hilariously roasts Sicily's machismo society.
None other than the face of Italian film himself Marcello Mastroianni plays Fefe Cefalu, a thirty-something member of the monied class in the Sicilian town of Agromonte.
Despite his bourgeois credentials, Fefe's family's wealth is quickly dwindling and he and his overbearing and suffocating wife Rosalia and the rest of his family are now confined to a single, crumbling wing of the old Cefalu Namor. Exasperated by his wife, furstrated by his aimless existence and hopelessly attracted to his nuble, underage niece Angela, Fefe decides to take action and break free of his opressingly dull existence. The first step in his reinvention is to find a way to ditch Rosalia, no small feat in Sicily where the law forbids divorce. Fefe must therefore turn to the only viable option to free himself of the bonds of holy matrimony--murder!
"Divorce Italian Style" takes a rather dark premise and turns it into something irreverent and genuinely funny, a molotov coctail thrown in the direction of outdated legal and social conventions. In "Divorce Italian Style" Germi, like in most of his comedies, mines heavy, almost sacrosaint material in search of humour, in this case relying on the legal bonds of marriage to provide him with some comic material. It is important to note that Germi does not glamorize or condone adultery in "Divorce Italian Style," unfaithfulness being shown here as a losers game. Rather, he uses it as a platform by which to relentlessly skewer Sicillian social mores, taking hilarious jabs at anyone he sees fit to mock along the way. You can almost feel him giggling gleefully as Fefe, barred by social and legal conventions from divorcing his unfaithful spouse, is encouraged by the villagers to go out and kill her to avenge his honor. Germi takes great pleasure in pointing out the rampant double standards endorsed by the residents of Agromonte and pulls no punches when mining them for comic relief.
Since Germi's comedies are first and foremost genuinely funny films, viewers often overlook how technically sound they are, which is a shame considering the work Germi and his crew obviously put into constructing a film like "Divorce Italian Style." As Martin Scorcese comments in his introduction to the Criterion release of the film, the technical merits of "Divorce Italian Style" are significant and had a profound impact not only on the 'commedia all'italiana' as a genre but on numerous filmmakers working in several different genres and styles. Scorcese points most specifically to Germi's camera work in "Divorce Italian Style" which shifts radically depending on whose point of view is being shown throughout the film, as a technical innovation that was refined by Germi in this film.
"Divorce Italian Style's" technical brio, however, is still overshadowed by the film's comedic merits which is no doubt what Germi was going for when he made this movie. It's a film that even close to 50 years after its release is still hilarious and witty, a testament to how well Germi's film has aged.
"Divorce Italian Style's" technical brio, however, is still overshadowed by the film's comedic merits which is no doubt what Germi was going for when he made this movie. It's a film that even close to 50 years after its release is still hilarious and witty, a testament to how well Germi's film has aged.
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