Sophia Loren Archives - Matrimonio all'italiana (1964)

FOREIGN TITLES & RELEASE DATES

Italy - December 18, 1964 - Matrimonio all'italiana - 109'
USA (New York City, Festival Theater) - December 20, 1964 - Marriage Italian Style - 102'
France (Paris) -

December 30, 1964 - Mariage à l'italienne - 95'

West Germany -

March 4, 1965 - Hochzeit auf italienisch - 101'
Spain (Madrid) -

December 1964 - Matrimonio a la italiana - 94' (attendance: 769,410)


Belgian poster	French poster	Spanish poster	Italian poster

PLOT

After having been Domenico Soriano’s lover-servant for many years, Filumena decides to make him marry her by resorting to the strategy of pretending to be at the point of death. Domenico, once he discovers the trick, is determined to dissolve the marriage he has been forced into, but Filumena has another arrow in her bow: she reveals to her husband that she has three sons, one of whom is the son of Domenico himself, At first the revelation spurs the man to rejection, but then he is driven by curiosity to know which of the three sons is his, But Filumena is unshakable, She will never reveal her secret since her intention is that ail three sons be considered equals by Domenico, Won over by the woman’s skillful game and by his affection for her, Domenico Soria no marries Filumena - this time in the proper way - and accepts the idea of living together with ail three sons. (Enrico Lancia)
Story: from the play 'Filumena Marturano' by Eduardo De Filippo.

FILMING LOCATIONS

Naples, San Sebastiano al Vesuvio (Italy)
Titanus Appia Studios, Rome (Italy)

Filming dates: April through July 1964

MAIN CAST

Sophia Loren (Filumena Marturano)
Marcello Mastroianni (Domenico Soriano)
Aldo Puglisi (Alfredo)
Tecla Scarano (Rosalia)
Marilù Tolo (Diana)

CREDITS

Sophia's Costume design:
Pietro Tosi
Sophia's Makeup Artists:
Giuseppe Annunziata
Sophia's Hair Stylist:
Ada Palombi
Music:
Armando Trovajoli
Still photographers:
Pierluigi Praturlon, Tazio Secchiaroli, Sam Shaw, Elio Sorci
Sophia's voice is dubbed by:
Herself (French)
Production:
Carlo Ponti for C.C. Champion S.p.A. (Rome); Les Films Concordia (Paris)
Executive Producer: Joseph E, Levine.

NOTES

The film won Sophia the David di Donatello award in 1965 for best actress, and the IV Moscow festival award, 1965, also for best female performer. She also gets the Bambi Award as the most popular actress in Germany. ln addition, the film was nominated for best foreign film at the 1965 Oscar Awards. Sophia Loren was also nominated for an Oscar as best actress in 1964 and received the Golden Globe award from the Hollywood foreign press in 1965, for best actress.

The film is dedicated to Italian actress Titina De Filippo who played the role of Filumena in the first film version in 1951.

Sophia meets in Pozzuoli a little girl named Concetta Greco Giarelli whom, according to the rumor, Sophia wants to adopt.

Sophia with Santa Chiara basilica in the background

QUOTES AND REVIEWS

"Loren progresses from brother ingenue to strutting tart, domineering housekeeper and devoted mother in a way that embraces all womankind."
Alexander Walker, Evening Standard

"So somptuous and imperious is Loren, that her sudden flurries of harassed earth-mother never cease to astonish by their warmth and strength."
Raymond Durgnant, Films and Filming

"Miss Loren is delightfully eccentric, flashy and formidable, yet stiff in her middle-class rigidity and often poignant in her real anxieties."
Bosley Crowther, New York Times, 21 dec 1964

"Loren and Mastroianni are superb."
The New Yorker

"Sophia Loren's figure and movements dominate the grotesque eroticism of a spider-web costume in the bordello scene, the energetic bad taste of a flower-print dress, and the drab make-up and knit sweater of a tired and sick middle-aged woman."
James R. Silke, Cinema

"...one cannot deny the talented Sophia the merit of having offered us a fervid and extremely vivid portrait - effectivve in its plebeian impudence as well as in the most moving chords - of this great character."
Gian Maria Guglielmino, La Gazzetta del Popolo, 22 dec 1964

"Sophia will probably win her second Oscar with this one - her best film!"
Dorothy Kilgallen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 jan 1965

"For the first time Loren displays in her role hints of an inner self that is not an appendage but something real, an inner self experienced, verified, profound, an interiority which was even lacking in Two Women."
Filippo Sacchi, Epoca, 31 dec 1964