Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Director:
Vittorio de Sica
Distributed by:
Embassy Pictures Corporation
Released:
December 1963
Country:
Italy
Plot,
photography, acting—among other things, those are the cornerstones of a great
film. But star power in a movie should
never be underestimated. And Yesterday,
Today, and Tomorrow, the 1964 Best Foreign Film from Italy, has three stars that
make this film pure entertainment.
First,
there’s Sophia Loren. I’m 50, and to me,
Loren has always been more of a name from the past than an actress, one of many
women in past cinema that might have been fun to watch years ago, but held no
interest for me. But in this film, you
really see that not only is she great Italian eye-candy, but a very funny
actress who knew exactly how to get an audience to like her. Then there is Marcello Mastroianni, one of
Italy’s best known actors, who does a great job supporting Loren as a straight
man. And thirdly, Vittorio de Sica, Italy’s
lesser known (to Fellini) legendary director, usually filming more heady
subjects, shows his talent for making a colorful and entertaining popcorn flick.
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| Mastroianni and Loren the Adelina of Naples section |
And
that is exactly what this is—a popcorn flick.
In fact, it's pretty much three popcorn flicks in one. There are three separate stories, with Loren
and Mastroianni playing different characters in different parts of Italy, like
three sitcoms in a row. The parts are
named as the characters Loren plays and where the part of the film is set.
Part
One, my favorite of the three, is called “Adelina of Naples.” Loren plays
Mastroianni’s wife, who sells black market cigarettes in order to support her
impoverished and growing family. And her
family does grow. Italian law, it seems,
prohibits a woman from being incarcerated if she is expecting. So when the polizia come to arrest her for
her illegal activities, she simply provides a doctor’s note, which forces the
authorities to have to wait until after she has her child. But once the baby comes, the only way for
Loren to stay out of jail is for her to get pregnant again. And Mastroianni’s character is happy to
oblige. Several times. But sooner or later, he has to run out of
energy, both to raise the many kids and to do his part in making them.
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| The famous striptease scene |
The
second section, “Anna of Milan,” has Loren as a Rolls Royce-driving wife of a rich
absentee husband, picking up Mastroianni, her presumed lover. She handles the car about as well as Apolonia
in The Godfather ("It's safer to teach you English!"), and Mastroianni has to figure out whether her driving and
personality are worth the effort. In the
final part, "Mara of Rome,” Loren is a high-class prostitute and Mastroianni is
her impatient client. Loren’s neighbor
is a pleasant young man about to go to the seminary to study to become a
Catholic priest, with Loren unintentionally being a convincing argument for him
to change his plans. The section includes a memorable strip scene ending in frustration for Mastroianni.
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| Matthau and Loren, Grumpier Old Men |
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow was a fun movie to watch. Between 1961 and 1964, DeSica would make
three movies with Loren and Mastroianni, with Loren winning for Best Actress
for Two Women in 1961, and nominated
for the same award in 1964’s Marriage,
Italian Style. Maybe she shows her
acting chops more seriously in those films, but in Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, with help from Mastroianni and her
director, she shows why she was such a star.
The Title:
Ieri, oggi e domain. Good Italian titles seem to come in threes,
with my favorite being Sergio Leone’s Il
buono, il brutto, il cattivo (a.k.a.,
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). I just wish whoever translated these titles
into English had learned to use the Oxford comma properly!
 |
| Please use Oxford commas! |
The culture:
De Sica shows Italy in three forms:
Small town Italy, where the poor couple lives; glamorous Milan, where Loren unsafely tools around in her luxury automobile; and urban
Rome, where future priests and current prostitutes can live next door to each
other. I especially liked how the
director transitioned the segments of the film by panning out of the
locale and allowing to camera to drift to the next locale.
Agenda danger:
There’s no agenda with a film this fun.
Best Picture that year:
My Fair Lady.
Rating:
It’s refreshing when the Academy rewards good comedy, which is to say,
it doesn’t reward it enough. Loren and
Mastroianni, who starred in the previous year’s Best Foreign Film by Fellini, 8½ (to be reviewed next week), seem to
be made to act together. For me, Loren
is no longer just the old Italian lady who was in Grumpier Old Men (1995) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. She is a real star.
