Special Day, A (1977)
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Review #1,164 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Ettore Scola
Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon
Plot: Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit in Italy in 1938.
Genre: Drama
Awards: Nom. for Palme d'Or (Cannes). Nom. for 2 Oscars - Best Foreign Language Feature, Best Leading Actor.
Runtime: 110min
Rating: NC16 for some mature content.
International Sales: Tamasa Distribution
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“Order is the
virtue of the mediocrity.”
One of Italy's greatest actors meets
one of Italy's greatest actresses in this popular 1977 Italian drama that made
headway at the Oscars, earning two nominations.
Directed by festival circuit mainstay Ettore Scola (Le Bal, 1983; The Family,
1987), who is probably most famous for A
Special Day, the film is beautifully composed, shot with a sepia-tone cinematography.
The superb digital restoration of this
classic gives the film an added sense of nostalgia. Meant to be a throwback to the Nazi era of
the late 1930s when released in the late 1970s, A Special Day can now be enjoyed by a new generation of moviegoers,
who would see the film as one made nearly forty years ago, about events
happening another forty years ago.
Scola’s work centers on a resigned
housewife (Sophia Loren) living in an apartment block. She has many kids, and a husband who thinks
she’s a maid. A parrot keeps her
company, but flies off to the opposite block when she accidentally lets it
loose. A man (Marcelo Mastroianni)
living opposite her comes into the picture.
He’s a disgraced radio journalist whose anti-fascist ideals and homosexual
tendencies cause him to be persecuted.
Developed in a way that follows the
trajectory of a quiet affair-esque drama, the film sees the man and housewife
visit each other’s apartment longing for a change in daily routine, and maybe
more. All this set in the wider,
disquieting context of the historic first meeting between Hitler and
Mussolini.
At the start of A Special Day, a five-minute long black-and-white newsreel of the
famous meeting is shown. People lined up
the streets, the army marched into town squares, and Hitler greets important
officials and the crowd. Then the
fictional plot begins in earnest in the same morning.
Shot entirely within the vicinity of
the apartment blocks, slightly Rear
Window-esque in approach, the film gives us a dizzying array of angles that
orientate us to the environment. Scola
also skillfully weaves in a running diegetic radio commentary broadcasting the
historic meeting as the hours passed.
Loren and Mastroianni's performances
are from the top drawer, riveting to watch, but overall the film is slightly
let down by its pacing. Sometimes, the
radio broadcast also feels more droning than informative. Still, this classic remains in the hearts of
many who see it – its memorable epilogue closes the film beautifully if
mournfully.
Verdict: Beautifully composed with sepia-tone
cinematography, this quiet affair-esque drama is set in the wider, disquieting
context of the first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini, drawing top
performances from Sophia Loren and Marcelo Mastroianni.
GRADE: B+
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