La legge (1959)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Jules Dassin

Writers:

Roger Vailland (novel)
Jules Dassin (writer)

Release Date:

11 November 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Lollobrigida is the Flame...Montand is the Fuse That Sets Them on Fire!

Plot:

Illicit passions pervade an Italian town, where men gather nightly for the cynical "game of the law."

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Affair | Based On Novel

Cast

Gina Lollobrigida	...	Marietta
Pierre Brasseur	...	Don Cesare
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Enrico Tosso, the Engineer
Melina Mercouri	...	Donna Lucrezia
Yves Montand	...	Matteo Brigante
Raf Mattioli	...	Francesco Brigante
Vittorio Caprioli	...	Attilio, the Inspector
Lidia Alfonsi	...	Giuseppina
Gianrico Tedeschi	...	First Loafer
Nino Vingelli	...	Pizzaccio
Bruno Carotenuto	...	Balbo
Luisa Rivelli	...	Elvira
Anna Maria Bottini	...	Maria
Anna Arena	...	Anna, Attilio's wife
Edda Soligo	...	Giulia

Also Known As:

La loi (France)
The Law
Where the Hot Wind Blows! (USA)

Runtime:

126 min | Spain:115 min | USA:114 min | Argentina:121 min | UK:114 min | West Germany:105 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:13 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Carpino, Foggia, Apulia, Italy

Company:

Le Groupe des Quatre

Trivia:

Both Carol Baker and Scilla Gabel had been contacted to play Marietta's part.

Soundtrack:

WHERE THE HOT WIND BLOWS

flawed, but highly enjoyable

The Law exists somewhere in the realm between a Hollywood soap opera and a European art film, with a dash of sexploitation.

This film is all about power--how one gets power, how one can use power (to lay down The Law, or lose power, and how power relates to sex. This film is all about sex. Sometimes, it feels like it's all about Gina Lollobrigida's boobs.

The all-star European cast are all good, especially Lollobrigida and Yves Montand, who has the meatiest role in the film, as a complicated local hoodlum who wants his son to become a lawyer, who wants to be the one to lay down The Law, and who very badly wants Gina Lollobrigida, who doesn't want him in the slightest.

Sometimes, the film approaches high camp, such as a couple of odd and unexpected musical numbers, and when Marcello Mastroianni and Gina Lollobrigida romp in the surf amidst a flock of sheep, or when Gina Lollobrigida is strapped to a table by her mother and a couple of jealous maids and whipped (and with a bowl of hot chilis behind her head that's photographed to look like a halo).

It's a gorgeous film to look at. There's Gina Lollobrigida's boobs. And then there's the quaint, crumbling little backwater Italian fishing village, sumptuously photographed in that deep, saturated mid-century black and white. And there's the sea. It looks straight out of a Fellini film.

Jules Dassin's direction is lively and stylish, and keeps the film eminently enjoyable throughout. He veers effortlessly between the comedic and the sinister and the sexy, often in the same scene.

But, although I found the films very enjoyable to watch, I do have some problems with it. It felt sometimes that Dassin was trying to cram in as much of the material from the novel as possible, even when it didn't best serve the film. There were multiple storylines unfolding, but the film's two-hour running time was not enough to accommodate them in any depth. And so the film meandered back and forth between characters and situations without a great deal of focus. I think Dassin would have done well to trim a couple of the storylines entirely, which weren't fleshed out enough anyway.

Still, though, this was solid entertainment. 8/10