A post-WW2 Italian movie with fine actors, a decent script, and lots of stuff for the curious eye to observe regarding the geography and the era.
Basically, it's a clean, platonic love story that opens up like a slow rom-com with more attempts at humor than it will allow in the ending. Maybe a bit too long for the story, but that's ok.
The young Valentina Cortese is elegant and charming. There is even a moment of "meta" where the American soldier, taking her out from the party to the garden, talks about how there are such scenes in almost every American movie, and she responds accordingly after coming close to losing control.
Post-war Italian perception of the USA comes with some great trivia in the movie. Such as that statement from General Clarke which she teaches her students:
"We will not ask anything from Italy other than a little bit of land to bury our dead"
What I have difficulty wrapping my head around is how fast Italian cinema could react to the very new situation of Americans being there in the country, becoming a drive for certain aspects of social life, interacting with local women.
This movie itself is proof that screenplays were not passing from hand to hand for years in an effort to make them as mature as they can. Writers just observed what's going on, hit fast their typewriters, and not much time was spent between that creative phase and hands-on production.
That's why these movies look "imperfect" from today's understanding of cinema, whereas their foremost quality is indeed that freshness.
Basically, it's a clean, platonic love story that opens up like a slow rom-com with more attempts at humor than it will allow in the ending. Maybe a bit too long for the story, but that's ok.
The young Valentina Cortese is elegant and charming. There is even a moment of "meta" where the American soldier, taking her out from the party to the garden, talks about how there are such scenes in almost every American movie, and she responds accordingly after coming close to losing control.
Post-war Italian perception of the USA comes with some great trivia in the movie. Such as that statement from General Clarke which she teaches her students:
"We will not ask anything from Italy other than a little bit of land to bury our dead"
What I have difficulty wrapping my head around is how fast Italian cinema could react to the very new situation of Americans being there in the country, becoming a drive for certain aspects of social life, interacting with local women.
This movie itself is proof that screenplays were not passing from hand to hand for years in an effort to make them as mature as they can. Writers just observed what's going on, hit fast their typewriters, and not much time was spent between that creative phase and hands-on production.
That's why these movies look "imperfect" from today's understanding of cinema, whereas their foremost quality is indeed that freshness.
