Two Women
Encyclopedia
Two Women is a 1960 Italian film
directed by Vittorio De Sica
. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren
, Jean-Paul Belmondo
, Eleonora Brown
, Carlo Ninchi
and Andrea Checchi
. The film was adapted by De Sica and Cesare Zavattini
from the novel of the same name
written by Alberto Moravia
.
. To escape the Allied
bombing of Rome, Cesira and her daughter flee southern Lazio for her native Ciociaria
, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy.
After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of a young local intellectual with communist sympathies named Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo
). However, Michele is eventually taken prisoner by a company of German
soldiers, who hope to use him as a guide to the mountainous terrain. Later, Cesira and Rosetta learn that he has been shot and killed by the same soldiers who took him hostage.
After the Italian liberation, mother and daughter decide to go back to Rome. After experiencing mild harassment and propositioning throughout their journey, they fall subject to an unexpected tragedy. As they rest in a bombed-out church, they are captured and gang raped by Goumier
s (Moroccan allied soldiers) serving in the Free French forces under Alphonse Juin
. Rosetta is particularly traumatized and has conflicting feelings for her mother. Eventually the two succeed in re-establishing the bond that linked them.
for Sophia Loren. This was the first time an acting Oscar had been given for a non-English
-speaking performance. Loren also won the award for Best Actress
at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival
.
Loren won 22 international awards for Two Women.
, Lidia Ravera
, Dino Risi and Bernardino Zapponi
. It was directed by Risi and starred Loren, Robert Loggia
, Leonardo Ferrantini, Dario Ghirardi and Sydney Penny
.
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
directed by Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
, Eleonora Brown
Eleonora Brown
Eleonora Brown was an actress in Italian films in the 1960s. She started at age thirteen as Sophia Loren's daughter in Two Women. She is a 1982 graduate of John Cabot University.-External links:...
, Carlo Ninchi
Carlo Ninchi
Carlo Ninchi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 128 films between 1931 and 1963.He was born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, and died in Rome.-Selected filmography:* I Love You Only...
and Andrea Checchi
Andrea Checchi
Andrea Checchi was a prolific Italian film actor.Born in Florence, Checchi appeared in over 150 films in his lengthy career, which spanned from 1934 to his death in 1974...
. The film was adapted by De Sica and Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.-Brief biography:...
from the novel of the same name
Two women (novel)
Two Women is a 1958 Italian language novel by Alberto Moravia. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her teenaged daughter from the horrors of war. When both are raped, the daughter suffers a nervous breakdown...
written by Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
.
Synopsis
The story centers on Cesira (Loren), a widowed Roman shopkeeper, and Rosetta (Brown), her devoutly religious twelve-year-old daughter, during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. To escape the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
bombing of Rome, Cesira and her daughter flee southern Lazio for her native Ciociaria
Ciociaria
Ciociaria is the name of a traditional region of Central Italy without a defined border nor historical identity. The name was adopted by a fascist movement of Frosinone as an ethnical denomination for the province of Frosinone, when it was created in 1927....
, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy.
After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of a young local intellectual with communist sympathies named Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
). However, Michele is eventually taken prisoner by a company of German
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
soldiers, who hope to use him as a guide to the mountainous terrain. Later, Cesira and Rosetta learn that he has been shot and killed by the same soldiers who took him hostage.
After the Italian liberation, mother and daughter decide to go back to Rome. After experiencing mild harassment and propositioning throughout their journey, they fall subject to an unexpected tragedy. As they rest in a bombed-out church, they are captured and gang raped by Goumier
Goumier
Moroccan Goumiers were soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa, between 1908 and 1956. The term Goumier was also occasionally used to designate native soldiers in the French army of the French Sudan and Upper Volta during the colonial era.-Description:The word...
s (Moroccan allied soldiers) serving in the Free French forces under Alphonse Juin
Alphonse Juin
- Early years :Juin was born at Bône in French Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912.- Career :...
. Rosetta is particularly traumatized and has conflicting feelings for her mother. Eventually the two succeed in re-establishing the bond that linked them.
Cast
- Sophia LorenSophia LorenSophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
- Cesira - Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
- Michele Di Libero, a young communist - Eleonora BrownEleonora BrownEleonora Brown was an actress in Italian films in the 1960s. She started at age thirteen as Sophia Loren's daughter in Two Women. She is a 1982 graduate of John Cabot University.-External links:...
- Rosetta - Carlo NinchiCarlo NinchiCarlo Ninchi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 128 films between 1931 and 1963.He was born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, and died in Rome.-Selected filmography:* I Love You Only...
- Filippo, Michele's father - Raf ValloneRaf ValloneRaffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian footballer, actor and an international film star.Born in Tropea, Calabria, the son of a lawyer, Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Turin and entered his father's law firm...
- Giovanni - Andrea ChecchiAndrea ChecchiAndrea Checchi was a prolific Italian film actor.Born in Florence, Checchi appeared in over 150 films in his lengthy career, which spanned from 1934 to his death in 1974...
- A fascist - Pupella MaggioPupella MaggioPupella Maggio born Giustina Maggio was an Italian film actress.-Selected filmography:- External links :...
- A peasant - Emma Baron - Maria
- Bruna Cealti - A refugee
- Antonella Della Porta - A crazy mother
- Mario Frera
- Franco BalducciFranco BalducciFranco Balducci is an Italian film actor. He appeared in 75 films between 1947 and 1978. He was born in Umbria, Italy.-Selected filmography:* Les Misérables * Two Women * La bellezza di Ippolita...
- A German in the haystack - Luciana Cortellesi
- Curt LowensCurt LowensCurt Lowens is a German actor of the stage and films, and a survivor and resistant of the Holocaust.-Life and career:...
- Tony Calio
- Remo Galavotti
Awards
The film won the Academy Award for Best ActressAcademy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for Sophia Loren. This was the first time an acting Oscar had been given for a non-English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking performance. Loren also won the award for Best Actress
Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Actress Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of films at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.-Award Winners:-External links:* * ....
at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival
1961 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jean Giono *Sergei Yutkevich *Pedro Armendáriz *Luigi Chiarini *Claude Mauriac *Edouard Molinaro *Jean Paulhan *Raoul Ploquin...
.
Loren won 22 international awards for Two Women.
Remakes
La Ciociara was remade for television in 1988. It was adapted by Diana GouldDiana Gould
Diana Gould is a screenwriter for television and a short story author.-Positions Held:Berrenger's*Producer & Writer Dynasty*Producer *Story Writer Family*Writer Knot's Landing...
, Lidia Ravera
Lidia Ravera
Lidia Ravera is an Italian writer, journalist, essayist and screenwriter.She became famous in 1976 for Porci con le ali, co-written by Marco Lombardo Radice, a novel dealing with the myths and ideals of the years around 1968.-Bibliography:*Porci con le ali *Ammazzare il tempo *Bambino...
, Dino Risi and Bernardino Zapponi
Bernardino Zapponi
Bernardino Zapponi was an Italian novelist and screenwriter best known for his films written in collaboration with Federico Fellini.- Biography :Zapponi was born in Rome in 1927...
. It was directed by Risi and starred Loren, Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...
, Leonardo Ferrantini, Dario Ghirardi and Sydney Penny
Sydney Penny
Sydney Penny is an American Daytime Emmy-nominated actress best known for the roles of Julia Santos Keefer on the soap opera All My Children and Samantha "Sam" Kelly on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.She is of part Cherokee descent and raised in Chatsworth, California, the daughter...
.
External links
- The complete film (dubbed into English) on-line at Google VideoGoogle VideoGoogle Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...