I saw the movie with its original soundtrack: English. This choice was a great mistake.
The stars that I have awarded to the movie are mainly due to the performance of Anna Magnani.
It was surreal and at times disturbing to see the movie hearing all characters speaking in a perfect English: because of the language everything looked like a tale without a precise geographic location. This element detracts a lot of charm to Anna Magnani's performance and to the atmosphere in general.
For instance, Maria was the most surreal character of the tale: a young, fresh and beautiful young girl that with her perfect English seemed closer to the Princess Sissy on holiday than a girl grown up on that island. This added to the story a certain aura of tale, but, in my view, absolutely avoidable and not credible.
For non Italian native speaker, this movie can still have a certain effect, but for an Italian it can be a severe disappointment.
The stars that I have awarded to the movie are mainly due to the performance of Anna Magnani.
It was surreal and at times disturbing to see the movie hearing all characters speaking in a perfect English: because of the language everything looked like a tale without a precise geographic location. This element detracts a lot of charm to Anna Magnani's performance and to the atmosphere in general.
For instance, Maria was the most surreal character of the tale: a young, fresh and beautiful young girl that with her perfect English seemed closer to the Princess Sissy on holiday than a girl grown up on that island. This added to the story a certain aura of tale, but, in my view, absolutely avoidable and not credible.
For non Italian native speaker, this movie can still have a certain effect, but for an Italian it can be a severe disappointment.