LA CIOCIARA (Two Women, 1960) **1/2 Really depressing and well done, if that's what you're into. Well done I said, but not great. I would definitely take issue with anyone claiming this as Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece. Umberto D. would be my choice and I wouldn't argue strongly against the consensus Ladri di biciclette, both serious enough to be downers in their own right, but not like this. Sophia Loren portrays strength, yes, but it never looks like it's going to be nearly enough. She's marked, they're marked from the opening frames. It's a remarkable performance and won her the big award but I suspect that the voters were too suddenly taken by her character, and her, more than even her performance. It's not, again, her greatest role or even her greatest performance for De Sica, which would have to be Il Viaggio . Please don't take this as knocking the film too much, only my preference for.feeling good, being happy, art that inspires rather than depresses. May strike others as artistic, strikes me as pointless. I guess it probably took a lot of guts at the time to represent allies of the Allies this way, but it's hardly surprising given what we now know about.well, the taking of Berlin for example. War is bad and a lot of times women are collateral damage. I would hope everyone already knows that, and doesn't need to be reminded in this way.
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