Jessica (1961)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Jessica |
| Original title | La Sage-femme, le curé et le Bon Dieu |
| Country of production | France , Italy |
| original language | English , French , Italian |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean Negulesco |
| script |
Ennio De Concini Edith Sommers |
| production | Jean Negulesco |
| music | Mario Nascimbene |
| camera | Piero Portalupi |
| cut |
Marie-Sophie Dubus Renzo Lucidi |
| occupation | |
| |
Jessica is a French-Italian comedy film directed in Italy in 1961 by Jean Negulesco starring Angie Dickinson in the title role of a lively widow and midwife who turns the heads of men in a Sicilian village. At her side, Maurice Chevalier and Gabriele Ferzetti play the leading male roles.
action
Jessica is a slim, long-legged, and quite attractive American woman who was on her honeymoon in Sicily with her husband. He died there as a complete surprise, and the still young widow decided to stay here. As a trained midwife , she hopes to be able to build a new life in these sun-drenched, southern climes. But thanks to her cheerful, sensual charisma and her airy outfit, all the men in the village of Forza d'Agro are staring after her and she is twisting their heads as she laughs through the village and the landscape on her Vespa . This does not go down well with the careworn and far less sensual female locals. Prudish and uptight Catholics, they soon band together under the leadership of the elderly but quite energetic Maria Lombardo, in order to attribute the supposedly “immoral”, “vicious” and “harmful” influence of Jessica on morality in general and the local male world in particular break up. Only in the age-old and experienced priest Father Antonio has Jessica, who is rightly not aware of any guilt, found a fatherly and understanding friend on site.
The beastly Maria Lombardo and the majority of the other women from Forza d'Agro are now subtly beginning to dig Jessica's water in order to bring their men back “on line”: You remember the ancient history of Lysistrata and henceforth step into one Marriage strike. Father Antonio disapproves of this, because Maria's plan is as simple as it is ingenious: If there is no more sex because women refuse to accept their husbands in bed, then there will be no pregnancies. And where there are no births, a midwife is of course no longer needed. In the meantime, Jessica has met an attractive young man who lives very secluded. His name is Edmondo Raumo and he claims to be a simple fisherman. But Raumo, in truth a nobleman (more precisely: a Marchese), has a good reason to deceive Jessica. He was badly wounded in World War II, just over a decade and a half ago, and has been broken internally ever since. When Raumo's lie comes out, Jessica is so disappointed that she wants to leave the village and Sicily forever. But only through an old man lying dying, who was always good to her, she thinks better and approaches Raumo again.
Production notes
Jessica was created in Italy in 1961 and celebrated its premiere there on January 17, 1962. This French-majority production was probably released in France before, in 1961, but an exact premiere date cannot be determined at the moment. The film was first seen in Germany on May 4, 1962.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Jessica | Angie Dickinson | Brigitte Grothum |
| Father Antonio | Maurice Chevalier | Walther Suessenguth |
| Edmondo Raumo | Gabriele Ferzetti | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| Crupi | Noël-Noël | Klaus W. Krause |
| Virginia Toriello | Kerima | Ingrid van Bergen |
| Luigi Tuffi | Marcel Dalio | Hugo Schrader |
| Maria Lombardi | Agnes Moorehead | Tilly Lauenstein |
| Filipella | Marina Berti | Ilse Kiewiet |
| Nicolina Lombardo | Danielle De Metz | Uta Hallant |
| Antonio Risino | Angelo Galassi | Rainer Brandt |
Reviews
"Amusing, not always tasty comedy in a beautifully photographed Mediterranean landscape."
"Synthetic rustic naughtiness that reveals some imperfectly blended together influences."
"Nonsense."
In view of the countless roles of seductive but often useless women that Angie Dickinson had played in American films to date, “her lively, seductive midwife in Jean Negulesco's Italian-French comedy 'Jessica' seemed more of a curiosity”.
Web links
- Jessica in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jessica in the German dubbing file
- ↑ Jessica. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 1, 2018 .
- ↑ Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of films , Volume 2, p. 383. Berlin 2001