A passion between a handsome dashing officer and an ugly woman...This may have lead to a mawkish melodrama ;but Scola was a director to be reckoned with .
Fosca is an outcast :although she lives in a good milieu,there is no future for her:in those times,the only thing a woman had was her beauty and her only opportunity was marriage;when one is so devoid of appeal,it's a blind alley.
Scola always turned his attention to the outcasts :"Brutti Sporchi E Cattivi " is a prominent example;in " Una Giornata Particolare",arguably his masterpiece ,he showed two victims of the fascist feast of virility ,a gay and a submissive housewife taking a rebel stand and making love .
Like the two heroes of 'Giornata" (1977),Giorgo and Fosca are worlds apart;he is a brilliant attractive officer with good prospects and a sexy lover (Played by Laura Antonelli,Italian sex symbol of the seventies,who recently died in poverty ).Although he seems a very happy man (one of the first scenes in the country with Fosca),he knows military life leads to nowhere :it becomes an unbearable routine:the claustrophobic atmosphere of the officers ' diners reminds the viewer of Valerio Zurlini's metaphoric work " Il Deserto Dei Tartari "(from Dino Buzzati's novel) .
The nineteenth century was,par excellence,the romantic century;Giorgio could not live a true passion with his mistress,a married woman who is older than him;a defiant young man,little by little,he feels attracted by this woman who's dying of love for him. A love condemned by the medical officer -who talks about a strange sickness-and by the military hierarchy ;when your own world is against you,it really becomes a "Passione D'Amor".
The last scene and the midget's lines are the key to the movie:such a story is incredible :had it been the other way about,that is to say the gorgeous girl falling in love with an ugly man(like me) ,I would believe.But "La Belle Et La Bete" in reverse ,it's absolutely impossible (considering male so called psychology?)
The sadly missed Bernard Giraudeau was one of the best French actors of the era ,recalling sometimes Gerard Philipe;under her heavy make up,Valeria d'Obici makes us feel for her tragedy;good support by Trintignant,Blier and Girotti.
All in all ,it's that same strange sickness which leads to destruction and to death that we feel in these two movies taking place in a military atmosphere ,"Il Deserto Dei Tartari" and "Passione D'Amore"
