Francesca and Nunziata (TV 2001)
"Francesca e Nunziata" (original title)

At the beginning of the century, in Italy, a wealthy woman Francesca (Loren), adopts a poor little girl named Nunziata. The years pass, Nunziata falls in love Federico (Bova), her adoptive brother, son of Francesca.

Director:

Lina Wertmüller

Writers:

Maria Orsini Natale (novel), Elvio Porta,

Stars:

Sophia Loren, Giancarlo Giannini, Claudia Gerini

Cast

Credited cast:
Sophia Loren	...	Francesca Montorsi
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Giordano Montorsi
Claudia Gerini	...	Nunziata
Raoul Bova	...	Federico Montorsi
Carmen Femiano	...	Mariuccia
Domenico Orsini	...	Enrico
Vanessa Sabet	...	Paolina
Moira Grassi	...	Gelsomina
Luciano De Crescenzo	...	Don Giacomo Ruotolo
Armando Pugliese	...	Cardinal Montorsi
Massimo Wertmüller	...	Angelo Limieri
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Enzo Cannavale
Paolo De Giorgio	...	Giorgio Carillo
Lola Pagnani

Storyline

At the beginning of the century, in Italy, a wealthy woman Francesca (Loren), adopts a poor little girl named Nunziata. The years pass, Nunziata falls in love Federico (Bova), her adoptive brother, son of Francesca.

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Plot Keywords:

title directed by female | based on novel | character name in title

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

22 January 2002 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Francesca and Nunziata

Filming Locations:

Procida Island, Naples, Campania, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

MediaTrade, Solaris Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Pleasant throwback

I saw this with an Italian friend who was struck by the stilted speech, which she said was obviously deliberate. My hope is that Lina Wertmüller's characters spoke, as would have been apt, like people in a Jack Vance novel, but I wouldn't know, since none of the stylised quality of her dialogue, whatever that quality was, came across in the English subtitles. For better or worse English speakers will see a more ordinary movie than the one Wertmüller made.

It's not bad even in its ordinary form. The deep focus, Academy ratio photography is excellent. It looks very much like a Hollywood film from the late 1940s with the same plot would have looked had such films been in colour. And without the one or two touches of nudity such a film could easily have been made then: a brisk saga of commerce, passion, honour, loyalty and grudges, high-flung yet easy to take seriously enough to care about the characters; it's the kind of thing which (especially in 1940s movies) gets called "melodrama" even though there MUST be a better word for it, since it really has nothing in common with the musty, overacted theatre pieces to which the term was originally applied.

After an enjoyable two hours you sort of wonder whether there's any point to the story other than the sequence of events of which it consists, or not. But this is less of a serious worry with this film than it was with, say, "Mildred Pierce".