Divorce Italian Style (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Marcello Mastroianni spent half of his career building up his image as the world´s ultimate Latin Lover, and the other half of it tearing that image down. Equally adept as a sophisticate and a goofball, Mastroianni took great pleasure in poking fun at the ultra-macho stereotype that made him one of the world´s most famous and successful actors.

In "Divorce Italian Style" (1962), directed by Pietro Germi, Mastroianni plays Baron Ferdinando Cefalu (known to family as Fefe), a Sicilian aristocrat who has it all: a nice home, a family fortune, respect in the community, and a loving wife. Oh, is Rosalia (Daniela Rocca) ever a loving wife! She follows her darling Fefe´s every move like a hawk tracks a rabbit, always ready to swoop into attack mode with a fresh cup of coffee, a flurry of kisses, or a high-pitched, jackhammer laugh for her beloved.

Fefe can´t quite figure out what to do with himself, feeling trapped not only by his wife but also by his cloying family. Salvation presents itself in the form of his sixteen year-old cousin Angela, played by sixties´ siren Stefania Sandrelli. Angela lives up to her name, a pure and wholesome vision of feminine purity. Fefe simply must have her.

Of course, there´s nothing simple about having her, not even for a Baron. In Sicily, it might be good to be the king, baby, but unfortunately there´s no law that allows for divorce. Sicilian law does, however, allow for a husband to kill his unfaithful wife in a moment of passion; a man can´t help himself when his honor is threatened, you see. So all he has to do is find a way to get Rosalia to fall for someone else and then, pfft, RIP cara mia.

Director Pietro Germi, like Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini, attended the influential Centro Sperimentale in Rome. Though he didn´t attain the same fame as some of his peers, he had more than his share of success in Italy where he mastered several popular genres. Germi was primarily known for dramatic films, and "Divorce Italian Style" represented a major departure for him. It was also, by far, his greatest international success, and remains today the only one of his films most American audiences have seen. "Divorce" received multiple Oscar nominations and won for Best Original Screenplay (a travesty, considering that Alain Robbe-Grillet´s all-time brilliant "Last Year at Marienbad" was also nominated that year.)

Critics were surprised by Germi´s deft touch with comedy, and audiences fell for Mastroianni´s charming lead performance. While his greatest role will always be as Guido in Fellini´s 1963 masterpiece "8 1/2," Mastroianni demonstrated a perfect comedic touch in other films such as Mario Monicelli´s "Big Deal on Madonna Street" (1958), a must-see for pure laughs, as well as in "Divorce." In both films, he begins as the classic "tall, dark, and handsome" lothario, and then gradually reveals himself to be a bumbling oaf. In "Madonna Street," he plays a thief who somehow manages to get beat up while trying to steal a camera from a tourist.

As much as I love Mastroianni´s performance, however, I found "Divorce" to be very predictable. A murder-comedy like this needs a few surprises along the way, but events in "Divorce" unfold in a very methodical, paint-by-numbers manner. Fefe sets up Rosalia´s affair, it happens, she runs off, he plays the cuckold, he confronts the cheating wife, and so on right up until the final scene. I usually rant against films which rely on the "big twist" for shock value, but "Divorce" doesn´t offer a single development the viewer can´t anticipate well ahead of time.

It is certainly fun watching Mastroianni dance and twitch his way through the various circumstances as the slick and self-assured Baron gradually devolves into a pathetic, oily self-caricature. By the end he´s such a pitiful figure, even his moustache looks like it wants nothing to do with him anymore, and only continues to stick to his face because of the overwhelming Sicilian humidity. But for a comedy, "Divorce" simply doesn´t have very many laughs. Many scenes do little more than mark time before the next predictable punch line.