Sophia Loren Archives - Una giornata particolare (1977)

FOREIGN TITLES & RELEASE DATES

France (Cannes) -

May 19, 1977 - Une journée particulière - 105'
Italy - August 12, 1977 - Una giornata particolare - 106'
USA (New York, Beekman Theater) - September 25, 1977 - A Special Day - 105'
Canada (Toronto) - December 13, 1977 - A Special Day - 105'
Spain (Madrid) -

March 26, 1978 - Una jornada particular - 105' (attendance: 414,567)

West Germany -

May 22, 1979 - Ein besonderer Tag - 105'


Italian poster	American poster	Polish poster	Italian DVD

PLOT

It is the day of Hitler’s official visit to Mussolini and in fascist Rome feverish preparations for the event are underway. An usher from the ministry, a militant fascist, dons the uniform of the ‘black shirts’ and goes to the parade with his six children, leaving his wife Antonietta by herself to tidy up the house and continue her domestic chores. As she is cleaning the birdcage, the blackbird escapes and goes to light on the windowsill of a facing apartment. In this way Antonietta meets Gabriele, an ex-radio announcer dismissed from service because of his scanty faith in fascism and for his homosexual tendencies. At first, influenced by the gossip of the malicious doorkeeper, Antonietta distrusts him, since among other things he invited himself to coffee, but then little by little she becomes interested in him and, even when he confesses his homosexuality, a strong desire for love suddenly takes hold of her. Theirs is a very brief encounter. Antonietta goes back to her affairs and awaits her family’s return from the parade. Gabriele is picked up by two policemen and interned. (Enrico Lancia)
Story and screenplay: Ruggero Maccari, Maurizio Costanzo, Ettore Scola.

FILMING LOCATIONS

Rome (Italy)

Filming dates: December 13, 1976 - February 18, 1977.

MAIN CAST

Sophia Loren (Antonietta)
Marcello Mastroianni (Gabriele)
John Vernon (Emanuele)
Alessandra Mussolini (Maria Luisa)

CREDITS

Photography (Technicolor):
Pasqualino De Santis
Music:
Armando Trovajoli
Costume design:
Enrico Sabbatini
Sophia's Makeup Artist:
Franco Fredda
Sophia's Hair Stylist:
Ada Palombi
Still photographer:
Tazio Secchiaroli
Production:
Carlo Ponti for c.c. Champion (Rome)
Canafox Films (Montreal)

NOTES

Sophia Loren wins the Donatello’s David award for this film and the Silver Ribbon for best actress. The film is also prized at the Golden Globe awards for Best Foreign Film.

Against everybody's expectations the film does not win any award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Una giornata particolare is Sophia's first Italian film in 13 years to open in the USA with English subtitles.

Sophia dubs her own voice in English, French and Spanish versions.

The film opens in the USA at the Beekman Theater in New York City with record-breaking business and generally favorable reviews.

QUOTES AND REVIEWS

"Miss Loren is magnificent in the best role she's had since "Two Women," for which she won an Academy Award."
Vincent Canby, New York Times, 26 sep 1977

"Loren's warmth can and does burn up the screen"
Frank Rich, Time Magazine

" If Two Women was the film of her youth, A Special Day was the film of her adulthood."
Louise Vincent

"The camera focuses on the most splendid profile of a frustrated woman which Sophia Loren has given us since Two Women.
That slovenly and prematurely aged housewife, beautiful and maternal, who wanders through the shabby rooms full of pathetic phatographs
and useless twentieth century playthings (...) is a throbbing character, surrounded by vapid officialism, who shuts herself up in her own house, ready to gush forth, with all the violence of her repressed femininity".
Gregorio Napoli, Il Giornale della Sicilia, 23 oct 1977

"Sophia Loren, daring a nonglamour role as the faded wife, gives what is assuredly her most mature and moving performance."
Thomas Quinn Curtiss, International Herald Tribune

"This is my most beautiful film".
Sophia Loren, Press conference, 9 jun 2003