• Ieri, oggi, domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)

10/2/24 (Wed)

I had seen De Sica’s later Sunflower, also starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, not too long ago, and a friend strongly recommended this 1963 comedy as well. Comedy is not the first thing that comes to mind for a De Sica film, but it did win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and was a big success in its day.

The film is an anthology of three unrelated stories, all centered around a strong female and a frustrated male. They are set respectively in Naples, Milan and Rome (which someone suggested should have been the film’s title). In the first, Loren is about to be imprisoned for selling black market cigarettes, but discovers a loophole: an expectant mother cannot be arrested until six months after the child is born. She conspires with her hapless husband to keep herself pregnant to ward off prison as long as possible. After the seventh child, the unemployed husband is exhausted and can’t bring himself to perform further. After briefly considering getting her brother-in-law to help out in that department, she comes to her senses and is duly hauled off to prison with her youngest child. The neighborhood and her fellow saleswomen gather cash and petition for an amnesty, which is eventually granted. She is greeted with cheers at the jail and rides home triumphant with her large family.

The second and shortest (20 minutes) story revolves around the self-centered wife of a rich industrialist, draped in gorgeous clothes (specially designed for Loren by Christian Dior), who has a dalliance with her lover, an idealistic artist. Nearly the entire sequence takes place in her Rolls Royce as she drives blithely uninterested in others on the road, as when she constantly bumps into cars ahead of her and refers dismissively to road workers. She forces the wary artist to take the wheel despite his insistence that he’s a Fiat kind of guy, then becomes incensed when he swerves to avoid a boy in the road and crashes the car. It becomes clear that she is more concerned with the car than the boy. She hitchhikes a ride back to town for help and tells the artist to watch the car, leaving him alone and disillusioned.

In the final story, Loren is a high-end call girl, and Mastroianni is the very horny son of a powerful businessman in Bologna and a regular client. Loren has unwittingly attracted the eye of a young boy next door aspiring to the priesthood. She tells him coyly that she is a manicurist, but his furious grandmother is not fooled. As the boy becomes increasingly smitten, the grandmother warns Loren to stay away as she is distracting the boy from his calling. However, she later comes begging Loren to help as the frustrated boy, unable to overcome his feelings, is packing to join the Foreign Legion. To the irritation of the burning businessman, Loren interrupts their time together to climb over the gate into the boy’s apartment. She convinces him to continue his religious aims, vowing celibacy if he carries through. The boy agrees to go the seminary. Finally rid of him, Mastroianni wants to get down to business, and Loren performs a bawdy striptease to rouse him. Unfortunately for him, just as he can barely wait any longer, she remembers her vow of celibacy and turns him down.

The sequences are mildly funny from today’s perspective, saved by buoyant performances by the two stars. The first story was fun in its depiction of a poorer community coming together; even the competing saleswomen, who are hawking the same products, seem to cooperate. There’s an element of class satire in the second story, but it is a bit too one note and short in length, making it the least fulfilling of the sequences. The first and third are both fun for what they are, though the first in particular is a bit drawn out. The striptease is justly famous and presumably had a lot to do with the film’s commercial success; it’s lost none of its power after all these years.

The cinematography was bright and boisterous throughout. De Sica is particularly good with crowd scenes, like the illegal tobacco salesgirls on the street and Loren’s victory parade in the first story. The film was great to look at.

An enjoyable film overall if nothing earth-shattering. One question: what the heck is the title supposed to mean?