Cinema Tuesdays {Divorce Italian Style}

Marcello Mastroianni stars in this 1961 comedy. He plays Ferdinando, a Sicilian nobleman in a small town.

This is his house and coat of arms.

These are his parents.

This is his wife, Rosalia. They've been married for twelve years and don't have any children, which is hard to imagine in traditional, Catholic Sicily.

He's bored in his marriage but his wife isn't. You know, she would be so bad if she did a little tweezing and got a different hairstyle.

This is his sixteen year old first cousin Angela, who lives in the other wing of the house. He wants to marry her, but divorce is illegal in Italy, however marrying one's first cousin isn't.

So, what is Ferdinando going to do?

Then he has a brilliant daydream: Kill Rosalia!

But first, he has to find out if Angela loves him too.

She does. Umm... yay?

But, how to kill his wife?

Fortunately, there's a legal loophole.

The crime of passion. All he has to do is to catch his wife with a lover and he gets 3-7 years for avenging his family honour. And since he's an aristocrat, he'll get the minimum sentence.

But first he has to find a lover, which you can't exactly advertise for.

Then he discovers some old love letters that her first boyfriend wrote to her, before he was declared missing in North Africa during the war.

But he's not dead! He turns up one day to restore some art in the church and Ferdinando hires him to restore the frescoes in his living room.

He also bugs the living room to find out how his plan is going.

It seems to be working. They still have the same feelings for each other. It's only a matter of time.

And then La Dolce Vita opens and the entire town goes to see it, because they heard it was dirty.

Except Rosalia, who has another headache.

So, Ferdinando sneaks out while Anita Ekberg is dancing.

No, you don't see Ferdinando watching Marcello Mastroianni on screen. That would be weird, but funny.

Only, instead of meeting for a tryst at the house, he sees Rosalia taking a suitcase to the train station. Only, by the time he grabs the gun and runs to the station, he's too late. For once, the train is on time.

Then word gets around and the town shuns his family because Ferdinando is a cuckold and the family honour is ruined. The town and his family expect him to do something.

Then he runs into the boyfriend's wife, who also expects him to do something. Only he doesn't know where they are.

Fortunately, the local mob guy offers to find them. For the good of the community, you know.

So, who gets there first? Does he get to marry Angela?

I couldn't find a trailer, but I found a clip:

Cinema Tuesdays {The Awful Truth}

For March, I thought that I would do Comedies about Divorce. Not to be depressing or anything but I've put together a list of rather interesting films that fitted around this theme.

And what's so interesting about The Awful Truth, you may well ask, since I'm assuming that you've all seen it?

Well, apparently, this is is the first cinematic recording of that wonderful and perpetually amused Cary Grant persona that we all love and it was supposedly based on the film's director Leo McCarey (who won the Oscar for this film).

Jerry has just returned home from two weeks in Florida with a tan he got an hour ago at his club and a basket full of oranges from California and some of their friends who were just hanging around waiting for the bars to open.

Whilst Jerry is mixing the eggnog and wondering where his wife is, in waltzes Lucy wearing last night's gorgeous gown.

At look at who followed her, Armand the music teacher. His car broke down on the way back from a dance and they had to stay at this inn overnight.

So, everyone leaves to let Jerry and Lucy... and Armand talk it over as well as the oranges from California.

Naturally they end up in divorce court. Now, what I've never understood about this double standard of the Code is that Irene Dunn has to spend the rest of the movie proving that nothing happened between Lucy and Armand but not only do we never find out what Cary Grant was up to during those two weeks that he was supposed to be in Florida but not another word is said about the matter. Does anyone have any thoughts on this plot point?

Since both Lucy and Jerry seem to have pots of money from somewhere, the only thing which must be decided is who gets custody of Asta. I mean, who gets custody of Mr. Smith, as played by Asta. Lucy gets him because she tricked Mr. Smith, but Jerry is allowed visitations. Their divorce will become final in ninety days, provided they don't reconcile beforehand.

Lucy takes a flat with Aunt Patsy, who wants to go out and have fun but Lucy stays home all night.

So, Aunt Patsy finds an oil man named Daniel out in the hallway and brings him in. Poor Ralph Bellamy. Always playing the second fiddle and never getting the girl because he's too attached to his demanding mother.

Lucy throws herself at Daniel because it annoys Jerry when he comes round to see Mr. Smith.

"Maw, I'm in love"

"Lucy, do you know what rebound is?"

What a lovely nightclub. I do wish that nightclubs were still around.

And look at who should run into each other. Why it's Jerry and a newly engaged Lucy.

Jerry has been hanging out with the club's singer, Dixie Belle Lee.

You remember her act, right?

Don't worrying, Dixie Belle isn't as embarrassing as Daniel trying to dance.

Jerry has figured out just how easy it'll be to break up Lucy and Daniel's engagement.

Jerry is also surprised when he follows Lucy one day and finds out that she has actually been performing with and not taking lessons from Armand.

But then Daniel and Mother drop by that afternoon and are shocked to find Armand and Jerry have been fighting in Lucy's bedroom. Where else are they supposed to fight? The sidewalks are so crowded nowadays.

Now that Daniel is out of the picture, Lucy is shocked to open the paper and find out that Jerry has been going with an heiress. The nerve of Jerry.

So, three months have finally passed and Lucy drops in to share a morning champagne toast to their divorce with Jerry. Only she answers the phone when Barbara is calling.

Naturally that was Jerry's sister that answered. Yes, the one who was in Paris, just arrived you know. No, she can't come to your dinner tonight.

So, Lucy decides to return the favour that Jerry did by getting rid of Daniel by showing up as Jerry's sister Lola. Only, no one likes her floor show.

And then Jerry has to drive her car out to Aunt Patsy's cabin because he thinks that Lucy's drunk.

You remember what happens next, with the cat and the clock.

Vintage Books {Erma Bombeck}

I have always loved reading humourists. I actually want to be a humourist when I grow up. Since this is suburban month, I thought I would write a little something about Erma Bombeck, who is the first humourist I ever read, mostly because I could reach her books on the self.

Mrs. Bombeck wrote over 4000 columns twice weekly between 1965 and her death in 1996 and at one time they were read by thirty million readers in 900 newspapers just in the States alone. Remember when there used to be over 900 newspapers?

Mrs. Bombeck wrote about raising kids (particularly teenagers in the Sixties and Seventies) in the suburban midwest. Or in other words, what the majority of those thirty million readers were doing. So, why was she so popular? Well, her writing is very funny. Even more funny when you see that she is just writing about real life and what happens every day. What she does not attempt to do is to pretend that Leave It To Beaver is a reality show about the average suburban family. Her columns are about the average American suburban family (I would assume). And what made her readable is that she had talent. Most of her writing is very wry and amusing, some of it is laugh out loud funny and sometimes her words are tinged with sadness as she realizes that someday her kids wont be around to fight with everyday.

But if you want to read about what life was like for a housewife in the Sixties and Seventies, do please read Mrs. Bombeck.

She also wrote fifteen books, most of which were instant best sellers. Here is a small list of her best books:

At Wit's End (1967)

Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own (1971)

The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank (1974)

If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978)

Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession (1983)

Here is a short documentary I found: