Malena (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 & 20 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 | teenage sex | teenage sexuality | 

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Taglines:

She was too young to be a widow, and too beautiful to be alone. Every man wanted to have her. One boy risked everything to protect her.

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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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Highly censored in countries such as the USA and UK. The uncut Italian version is 108 minutes, while the UK and US version is cut to 92. More than 16% of its running 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's Father: [regarding Renato's incessant and loud masturbation sessions at night] You are going to go blind!

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Crazy Credits

The movie is dedicated to Tornatore's Father

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Alternate Versions

Original Italian version (rated VM14, suitable for people 14 years and over) runs 108 minutes. Miramax cut 16 minutes of the film down to a running time of around 92 minutes, in order to obtain an R rating. Gone or shortened were many of Renato's dream sequences with Malena which involve a lot more nudity than in the cut version.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

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Soundtracks

Giovinezza
Written by Giuseppe Blanc

User Reviews

More than just Monica.

On the face of it, this movie is about a young boy's fantasies as he falls in love with the image of an older woman. I say 'image' because he doesn't know her at all to begin with, but as he watches, her increasingly sad truth is seen through his eyes.

It's also about Sicily during the war, but deeper than that, to me, it seems to be about the mob mind, jealousy and hatred and about how people tend to become what is expected of them, or don't.

Monica Bellucci is undeniably among the sexiest women alive and her near wordless performance is mesmerising. My only criticism is the somewhat stereotypical way that the 'men' are portrayed. Perhaps there's some truth that we are all driven from an area below the waist, but I'd like to think it's not true of all of us.

8/10.

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

Gross USA:

$3,448,233

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,493,284

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