A Special Day (1977)

A Special Day is directed by Ettore Scola, has a screenplay by Scola and Ruggero Maccari, is produced by Carlo Ponti and stars Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren and John Vernon.Italy in 1938. Adolf Hitler travels to Italy to meet with Mussolini. His visit is treated as something special and many people gather to see him. Antonietta (Sophia Loren)stays home while her husband (John Vernon)and six children go out for the day to attend the festivities.The families pet bird escapes out the window and Antonietta sees it has landed on the ledge of a neighbours apartment window. She goes round to the apartment and her arrival saves the man who lives there from committing suicide. The man she meets is Gabriele(Marcello Mastroianni), he's a homosexual who has been fired from his job because he is classed as an undesirable. He helps her get the bird back and the two get talking. As the day goes on they keep getting together and talking and learning about one another.Both are lonely people with a deep inner sadness, Gabriele cannot be himself in public for fear of being arrested or worse, he cannot find any happiness. Antonietta is worn out, her husband no longer loves her for herself and her own happiness has had to be put to one side so she can devote all of her time and energy to looking after her family. The pair of them try and give one another some joy and comfort, each lets the other know that they are not alone and that their lives are far from meaningless.The film becomes even more poignant when it becomes clear that Antonietta is falling in love with Gabriele. There is no way he can return her feelings, yet at the same time doesn't want to hurt her by telling her they can't have anything together.This is one of the saddest films I've ever seen, these two people are so lonely and if Gabriele were a straight man they would have made a good couple and no doubt brought one another the happiness they both so desperately want, sadly it's not to be.Marcello gives one of his best performances in this, his eyes convey the pain of his character so well. In the scene where Antonietta tries to seduce him his face tells you everything you need to know, he's not enjoying what she's doing and it's like he's mentally removed himself from the moment, yet at the same time he doesn't try and stop her because he knows she want's this physical contact so much. He doesn't want to cause her more pain by pushing her away.Sophia also conveys her characters suffering and weariness through her expressions, she looks every inch the worn out housewife, there is no trace of the glamour we see in her other films. The scene where she confesses her growing attraction to him while they are collecting the washing in is so raw, you feel her desire and you feel his awkwardness.Both actors inhabit their characters so well in this.I wish the film was longer so we could have more scenes between these two. Poignant and deeply moving A Special Day shows the importance of being valued for yourself and how important friendship is, we need these things so we are not alone. For a brief moment on this day these two characters give each other some much needed joy and a special connection that neither will forget. The film ends sadly for two reasons, one because of Gabriele's fate and secondly because we as the viewer know what these characters will face next. The Second World War lies just around the corner and these people will soon face horrors they didn't think possible and an entire way of life will change forever.

I just saw this movie on a grainy DVD in a dubbed version--I believe Sophia dubbed her own English. Even so, this film blew me away . . . slowly. The near-constant background noise of radio announcers burbling on and on about the glories of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany over martial music created a sonic claustrophobia that matched the visual sense of restriction in the apartment complex. I knew beforehand that Mastroianni was cast as a gay man; I was not prepared for the delicacy and refinement he brought to his portrayal. And Loren's character was full of surprises--we first see her as an exhausted, exploited wife and mother. It's a shock to see her face light up when she recalls her encounter with Mussolini. Loren as a fascist! How these two connect in such a human, simple way is breathtaking. Each is imprisoned in their own fashion at the end, and yet there is a hint that each has found a fragile new sense of freedom. But Scola does not deny the tragedy of these characters' destinies. Very moving. I hope to see it in the original Italian some day.

May 1938. Hitler in Italy. Preparations for historical appointment with Mussolini.Emotions , tensions and forms of self-affirmation. a empty town, a housewife and a journalist. The meeting of two different worlds. Refuge for a mother with a sad life. Short filling for a classical victim. A story about solitude and silence. About the form of of life's nooks and desire like fight's form. The great character- a book gifted in a spring's afternoon. This movie is a poem, remarkable for the art to describe the shades of common loneliness. A pleading for a ineffable relation with reality. And with your interior world. The pictures of Il Duce, the clumsiness of Antonietta, the patience and the frailty tension of Gabriele, the art of director to give the sense of script grace two great actors makes this film sublime, foretaste of subtle delicacy, a wonderful film about hypocrisy and arbitrary verdict, about essence of life and repulsiveness of any tyranny. Loren and Mastroianni are the masters of a magnificent intelligent acting. A clear masterpiece.

A SPECIAL DAY (Ettore Scola - Italy/Canada 1977).Every once in a while, you come across a film that really touches a nerve. This one offers a very simple premise, almost flawlessly executed in every way and incredibly moving at the same time. It's surprising Ettore Scola's "Una giornate particulare" is relatively unheralded, even hated by some critics. Time Out calls it 'rubbish' and Leonard Maltin, somewhat milder, 'pleasant but trifling.' I disagree, not only because this film is deeply moving, but within its simple story it shows us more insights about daily life in fascist Italy than most films I've seen. The cinematography is distinctly unflashy, even a bit bland, and the storyline straightforward, which might explain the film's relative unpopularity. Considering late '70s audiences weren't exactly spoiled with great Italian films, it's even stranger this one didn't really catch on with the critics.The film begins with a ten-minute collage of archive footage from Hitler's visit to Italy on may 8th 1938. Set against this background, we first meet Antonietta (Loren), a lonely, love-ridden housewife with six children in a roman apartment building. One day, when her Beo escapes, she meets her neighbour Gabriele (Mastroianni), who seems to be only one in the building not attending the ceremonies. He is well-mannered, cultured and soon she is attracted to him. During the whole film, we hear the fascist rally from the radio of the concierge hollering through the courtyard. Scola playfully uses the camera to make us part of the proceedings. After the opening scene, the camera swanks across the courtyard of the modernist (hypermodern at the time) apartment block, seemingly searching for our main characters, whom we haven't met yet. Marcello Mastrionani and Sophia Loren are unforgettable in the two leading roles, all the more astonishing since they are cast completely against type. Canadian born John Vernon plays Loren's husband, but he is only on screen in the first and last scene. I figure his voice must have been dubbed, since he's not of Italian descent and never lived there, to my knowledge, so I cannot imagine he speaks Italian. If his voice has been dubbed, I didn't notice at all. On the contrary, he's completely believable as an Italian, even more than the rest of the cast. The story is simple but extremely effective, the performances are outstanding, the ending is just perfect and the framing doesn't come off as overly pretentious but works completely. Don't miss out on this one.Camera Obscura --- 9/10