Blu-ray Review: Houseboat
Planned as a vehicle for Cary Grant and his third wife actress-writer Betsy Drake, 1958’s Houseboat was to be their third film together after 1948’s Every Girl Should Be Married and 1952’s Room for One More. However, by the time the film was made, Grant was infatuated by Sophia Loren. He had Drake replaced with […]
A Special Day (Criterion) (Blu-ray)
Despite the celebratory mood that surrounds Rome, beautiful housewife Antoinetta (Sophia Loren) feels just as lonely as ever. She has a husband and six children, but feels emotionally spent: husband Emanuele (John Vernon) is overbearing and disrespectful; while her children are rude and don’t really appreciate everything she does for them. Today, Emanuele has taken […]
Blu-ray Review: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The 1964 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, yet another entry into director Vittorio De Sica’s ‘lighter fair’ filmography, is likely his best from that period. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni team up again for what is essentially a collection of three stories, but nonetheless works as a unified whole.
Blu-ray Review: Marriage Italian Style
A glossy rendition of Eduardo De Filippo’s Neapolitan play Filumena Marturano, Marriage Italian Style is a comedic drama about the highs and lows of a lifelong romance. Starring the perpetually stunning Sophia Loren, and the “man’s man” Marcello Mastroianni, the duo would eventually make a total of 14 films together. A few of the pair’s […]
Blu-ray Review: Nine
Sony Pictures | 2009 | 119 mins. | Rated PG-13 An adaptation of the Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit Tony winning stage musical, Nine seemed like a sure-fire hit. Directed by Rob Marshall, who steered Chicago to a Best Picture Oscar in 2002;. Packed with kinetic choreography (by Marshall himself), melodic songs, and a substantive story based […]