And yet they live

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Movie
German title And yet they live
Original title La ciociara
Country of production Italy , France
original language Italian , German
Publishing year 1960
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Vittorio De Sica
script Cesare Zavattini
Vittorio De Sica (anonymous)
production Carlo Ponti
music Armando Trovajoli
camera Gábor Pogány
cut Adriana Novelli
occupation

And yet they live is a feature film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica from 1960. The melodrama is based on the novel Cesira ( La Ciociara ) by Alberto Moravia and was championed by the film studios Compagnia Cinematografica, Les Films Marceau-Cocinor and Société Générale de Cinématographie produced.

action

Italy in 1943: The young and wealthy widow Cesira has a 13-year-old daughter named Rosetta and owns a small shop in Rome. The bombing of the capital of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini by the Allies is increasing day by day, and staying in the city is becoming increasingly life-threatening. Mother and daughter witness how some customers are bombed out and a shock wave bends the steel grating over their shop door with frightening ease. Cesira has to make a decision: should she seek refuge in the country with her frightened daughter, or should she stay in Rome?

While considering the situation, she visits the coal merchant Giovanni in his shop. Giovanni is so fascinated by the beautiful Cesira that he attacks her on the floor of his shop. As a reward he gives her a sack of coal, but Cesira throws it at his feet; nevertheless she takes a friendly farewell to him. She has decided to leave Rome with her daughter and seek refuge in the countryside in her home village. The journey is long and arduous for mother and daughter. Railroad tracks have been destroyed and they have to walk part of the way.

When they arrive in Cesira's home village, mother and daughter have to realize that the war has already arrived in the apparently safe surrounding area. The people barely have to eat, live on bread and water or live on their wine supplies. Cesira and Rosetta get to know Michele, a rather shy young student who is only called "professor" by friends and family, which has earned him above all his anti-fascist attitude and openly expressed criticism of the war.

Michele feels very drawn to Cesira, but at first she resists his advances. When she is finally ready to return his love, German soldiers invade the poor village. On the run from the Allied troops from Anzio near Rome, they force Michele at gunpoint to lead them through the mountainous landscape.

While Michele accompanies the German soldiers on their way through the Ciociara Mountains, Cesira decides to return to Rome. The Allies and their troops are in the north just before the Italian capital - liberation is apparently imminent. On the exhausting way back home, Cesira and Rosetta wave to several Allied soldiers in their jeeps, including Moroccans ( Goumiers marocains , colonial troops of the “Corps Expéditionaire Français en Italie”), who stare at the mother and daughter because of their beauty and whistle at them . To sleep, Cesira and Rosetta retreat to a bombed-out church, where they are surprised by soldiers who overpower both women and rape them one after the other throughout the night. After this ordeal, for which they almost pay with their lives, they continue on their way, with Cesira having to take care of her daughter, who is in shock after the violent assault.

Both of them soon made the acquaintance of the young truck driver Florindo, who was able to persuade Rosetta to forget the terrible experiences and to sing a song with him. The two women then spend the night with Florindo and his mother. When Cesira wakes up that night, Rosetta has disappeared. Florindo went out to dance with her, Florindo's mother knows; and Cesira also learns from her that Michele's body has been found in the mountains.

Discouraged, Cesira waits for her daughter to return home. When Rosetta returns from dancing that morning with silk stockings in hand, Cesira confronts her daughter and hits her in the face after she has given her a snotty answer. But Cesira has to realize that Rosetta has become a young woman. When she tells her about Michele's death, they both cry, whereupon they settle their argument and hug each other.

History of origin

The war drama is based on the 1957 novel Cesira (original title: La Ciociara ) by the Italian writer Alberto Moravia. The work is based on Moravia's personal experiences in Italy during World War II. As a journalist, the Italian had earned the wrath of the fascist regime under Benito Mussolini and the Vatican with his work before the war , which led to the loss of his job. In 1941 he went into voluntary exile in Capri . After the Allies landed in Italy, Moravia and his wife escaped arrest by the fascists in 1943 by fleeing to the mountains of Ciociaria ( Latium ) and living there in seclusion among ordinary people. And yet live them was the sixth adaptation of a novel by Moravia, who also worked as a screenwriter and film critic after the war.

The Italian actress Sophia Loren was hired for the lead role, while her husband Carlo Ponti was responsible for the production . Loren made the leap to Hollywood in 1957 , where he appeared in mostly smooth and frivolous roles alongside stars like Cary Grant , Frank Sinatra , John Wayne , William Holden and Anthony Quinn . Until then, however, the 25-year-old Italian had no success as a serious actress. She was originally offered the role of Rosetta alongside Anna Magnani . However, Magnani had refused to play Loren's mother. Ponti then cast his wife - and Rosetta was significantly younger in the script compared to the novel. 13-year-old Eleonora Brown starred in And yet they are living her first film role.

The supporting role of Michele was played by the young Jean-Paul Belmondo , who in the same year attracted attention with Jean-Luc Godard's Out of Breath and became a key figure in the French Nouvelle Vague . The Italian Vittorio De Sica was entrusted with the direction. From the 1940s on he stood out as a representative of Italian neorealism and also celebrated international success with films such as Bicycle Thieves (1948). In addition to De Sica, Cesare Zavattini was responsible for the script , who had previously worked with the director several times. The shooting took place in the Italian region of Lazio, at the original locations, where the mountainous landscape of the Ciociaria extends.

reception

And yet live it was premiered in Italy on December 22nd, 1960. Almost five months later, on May 8, 1961, Vittorio De Sica's nineteenth directorial work, entitled Two Women, premiered in New York . The melodrama received critical acclaim, largely due to Sophia Loren's performance as Cesira , Loren's first unglamorous role. On the other hand, there was largely criticism of the production, and weaknesses were noted in the script. De Sica would have paid too much attention to the main character Cesira and, contrary to the rules of neorealism, would not have skimp on comments and analyzes. Above all, the comments about Jean-Paul Belmondo's character were rated as “stupid phrases” (cf. film-dienst 46/1961). De Sica's war drama is generally not counted among the best works of his cinematic work as a director. Nevertheless, the film was to advance to the greatest success in Sophia Loren's acting career, which she would build on four years later with Vittorio De Sica's wedding in Italian , at the side of Marcello Mastroianni . The film premiered in the Federal Republic of Germany on October 26, 1961 and received an FSK-18 approval from the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry .

On December 1, 2004 And Yet They Live was re-released at the Cairo International Film Festival .

Reviews

“The film moves between a renewal of neorealism and its simultaneous breakthrough and overhaul by the star film. In details, de Sica is unmistakably de Sica. Less in a committed formation of the event than in some somewhat sentimental admixture and in naive sentences, of which one does not really know whether they are meant as pro-communist as they sound. - Our moral reservation applies to some details of the beginning. "

- film service

"Obviously the purpose of this basic representation [...] is to depict the disaster of these people - and certainly of Italy - who thought that the war was a matter of leisurely downplaying and doing. The portrayal of Allied soldiers who commit the devastating rape is the ultimate painful dramatization and statement after the tragedy of the war. This is the film's commentary, and it's sudden and sharp, but the beauty of Miss' Loren's portrayal lies in her illumination of a passionate motherhood. In the early stages of the film she is happy, far-reaching, funny, attuned to the gusto of farm workers, and gentle with her child. But when the disaster begins, it is serious and profound. When she cries for the innocence of her daughter, one cries quietly with her [...] Signor De Sica's direction has the fullness and the force that is compelling and so familiar in his films. "

- New York Times

Remarks

Awards

Vittorio de Sica's melodrama competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961 and won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film . Leading actress Sophia Loren was awarded the Actor Awards from Cannes, the New York Film Critics Association and the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani in 1961. At the Academy Awards on April 9, 1962 in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (official count 1961), the Italian actress was absent from Audrey Hepburn ( Breakfast at Tiffany's ), Piper Laurie ( Sharks of the City ), Golden Globe winner Geraldine Page ( Summer and Smoke ) and Natalie Wood ( Fever in the Blood ) nominated for Best Actress , but was considered an outsider. Her victory was all the more surprising, as for the first time in the history of the Academy Awards a non-English language production was able to prevail in an actor's category. However, Loren had dubbed himself for the English version of the film. It was also the second leading actor Oscar for an Italian actress after Anna Magnani's victory in 1955 for The Tattooed Rose . The award was accepted by British actress Greer Garson on behalf of Sophia Loren .

Oscar 1962

  • Best Actress (Sophia Loren)

Golden Globe Award 1962

  • Best foreign language film

Further

Blue Ribbon Award 1962

  • Best foreign language film

Cannes International Film Festival 1961

  • Best Actress (Sophia Loren)
  • nominated for the Palme d'Or for best film

Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani

  • Best Actress (Sophia Loren)

Laurel Award 1962

  • 5th place for Best Actress - Drama

New York Film Critics Circle Award 1961

  • Best Actress (Sophia Loren)

Remake

In 1988 the film was made into a film by the director Dino Risi in Italy under the title Cesira - A woman conquers the war (original title: La Ciociara ). The 100-minute remake , again with Sophia Loren in the role of Cesira and Sydney Penny as Rosetta , was also based on Alberto Moravia's novel. Cesira - A woman conquers the war , but could not build on the success of Vittorio De Sica's original.

In 2017, a three-part porn version of the material entitled La ciociara was created under the direction of Mario Salieri .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. And yet they live . In: The big TV movie film lexicon: all the top movies from A to Z . Berlin: Directmedia Publ., 2006 (digital library: special volume). - ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1