De Sica’s ‘Two Women’.

There seems to be a hint, a clue, in the English title of De Sica’s ‘Two Women’ (1960) that a change is going to occur, that something will take place and alter lives. Some things, it seems, are inescapable.

Sophia Loren plays Cesira, a widowed shopkeeper living in Rome with her young daughter Rosetta (these aren’t two women at this point but, for now, a mother and her child) during the Allied bombing of Rome, July 1943. Fearing for her daughter’s safety, Cesira decides the two of them will travel to Ciociaria, the rural region where Cesira was raised, where they will stay until the fighting has calmed down. Yet, from the constant noise of warfare that pervades the air, total escape could prove impossible and, at worse, naive.

Arriving at Ciociaria and reunited with her extended family, Cesira befriends a young intellectual, Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and a passionate friendship develops between them even though life is tough, food hard to come by and the ever present threat of the war is on the cusp of bringing violence as the German and Allied forces tear the country apart.

Can Cesira and Rosetta survive long enough to return to Rome once the fighting has stopped and, if so, how will the war have changed them?

‘Two Women’ is a heart-breaking watch dealing as it does with the ‘Marocchinate’, a war crime committed by Moroccan troops under the command of the French Expeditionary Corps after the Battle of Monte Cassino. Yet a lot of blame is spread evenly with the message being that in war all sides lose their humanity, so no-one is let off the hook. This is also evident from the very start as it seems Cesira can trust no one, and rightly so it seems, as every where she turns there is the danger of exploitation. Home seems the only place of safety, but just where, exactly, is her home now?

De Sica and Loren’s skill though is in not making Cesira out to be purely a victim. For example they don’t idolise her; she can be selfish, a little manipulative and very bossy. In essence — human. This adds great depth to her character, something that is further enhanced by Loren’s performance which is simply spectacular and one of her best, and that’s saying something.
Needless to say that De Sica gets excellent performances from all his actors but what really surprised me was just how visually impressive the movie is with some gorgeous cinematography of the Italian countryside and some very nice, and subtle, camera-moves. This is easily one of De Sica’s best looking films, despite the heavy subject matter. There is a beautiful shot of a ladybird slowly making its way across a blade of grass as bomber and fighter planes unleash hell from above and leaving me wondering if Terrence Malick had seen this movie before making ‘The Thin red Line’ (1998).

The dialogue is also captivating with a constant, natural flow to it that sweeps you up into this very specific world of a very specific time. The sense of location and culture is evocative and captivating.

‘Two Women’ is a hard watch but not unbearable and makes an extremely important point with intelligence, power and nuance. It is also worth seeing for Loren’s performance alone. It is devastating.