Malèna (2000)

Amidst the war climate, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

Director:

Giuseppe Tornatore

Writers:

Giuseppe Tornatore (screenplay), Luciano Vincenzoni (original story)

Stars:

Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 17 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Monica Bellucci	...	Malèna Scordia
Giuseppe Sulfaro	...	Renato Amoroso
Luciano Federico	...	Renato's Father
Matilde Piana	...	Renato's Mother
Pietro Notarianni	...	Professor Bonsignore
Gaetano Aronica	...	Nino Scordia
Gilberto Idonea	...	Avvocato Centorbi (as Gilberto Idone)
Angelo Pellegrino	...	Segretario politico
Gabriella Di Luzio	...	Mantenuta del Barone
Pippo Provvidenti	...	Dott. Cusimano
Maria Terranova	...	Moglie Dott. Cusimano
Marcello Catalano	...	Lieutenant Cadei
Elisa Morucci	...	Lupetta
Domenico Gennaro	...	Farmacista
Vitalba Andrea	...	Moglie farmacista

Storyline

Malèna is about the peril of a beauty through the eyes of a 12 year old kid named Renato. He experiences three things on the same day, beginning of war, getting a bike and sees the arrival of Malèna in town. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed to be dead, and through his soul we see his love for her.

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Plot Keywords:

female removes her clothes | female pubic hair | masturbation | female removes her dress | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

A world at war. A young man coming of age. And the woman who changed his life forever

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality/nudity, language and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Italy USA

Language:

Italian English Latin Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

Release Date:

2 February 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Malena

Filming Locations:

Messina, Sicily, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$62,282, 25 December 2000, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,429,045, 1 April 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Medusa Film,Miramax,Pacific Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min 92 min (heavily cut) 84 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Highly censored in countries such as the USA and UK. Uncut Italian version is 105 minutes (PAL) while the UK version is heavily cut to 88 minutes (PAL), which becomes 92 minutes in the USA due to NTSC slowdown. Meaning more than 16% of its run-time is cut.

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Goofs

The bike that Renato rides, suddenly has a modern derailleur-type chain tensioner at the rear at about 20-21 minutes into the film. At all other times, his bike has a fixed rear gear without the chain tensioner.

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Quotes

Renato Amoroso: From now on, I'll be at your side. Forever, I promise. Just give me time to grow up.

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Crazy Credits

The movie is dedicated to Tornatore's Father

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Connections

References Amarcord (1973)

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Soundtracks

Giovinezza
Written by Giuseppe Blanc

User Reviews

The battle, the bike, the boy and the babe.

Maléna is a wonderfully crafted, mature and subtle tale of dedication, passion and true realization of beauty. The fantastic story revolves around the teenage boy Renato, ever on his bicycle, who falls in a rather platonic love with the town's beauty Maléna. I use the word 'platonic' because I felt Renato's passions towards Maléna's outstanding sexual beauty were mostly of profound appreciation, not just his own voluntary arousal of his sexuality, though the film has many scenes of his musterbation. And all these happens when Italy went to the World War.

Expressions of the War came in every aspect of the film, even in Renato's feelings towards Malena or the hatred towards those men who wanted her. Guiseppe Sulfaro did an outstanding job in this extremely demanding role. My hats off to him. The goddess-like Monica Bellucci rarely looks up or speaks in this film. Besides providing the audience the guilty pleasures, she did a wonderful job in creating the aura of sadness and melancholy around her character. I considered hers is a fine piece of acting.