Plot Outline: On the day in 1940 that Italy enters the war, two things happen to the 12-year-old Renato: he gets his first bike, and he gets his first look at Malena, a beautiful, silent outsider who's moved to this Sicilian town to be with her husband Nico who promptly goes off to war, leaving her to the lustful eyes of the men and the sharp tongues of the women. During the next few years, as Renato grows toward manhood, he watches Malena suffer and prove her mettle: her loneliness, then grief when Nico is reported dead, the effects of slander on her relationship with her father, her poverty and search for work, and final humiliations. Will Renato learn courage from Malena and stand up for her?
Malena is a wonderfully crafted, mature and subtle tale of dedication, passion and true realization of beauty. The fantastic story revolves around the teenage boy Renato, ever on his bicycle, who falls in a rather platonic love with the town's beauty Malena. I use the word 'platonic' because I felt Renato's passions towards Malena's outstanding sexual beauty were mostly of profound appreciation, not just his own voluntary arousal of his sexuality, though the film has many scenes of his musterbation.
And all these happens when Italy went to the World War.
Expressions of the War came in every aspect of the film, even in Renato's feelings towards Malena or the hatred towards those men who wanted her. Guiseppe Sulfaro did an outstanding job in this extremely demanding role.
My hats off to him. The goddess-like Monica Bellucci rarely looks up or speaks in this film. Besides providing the audience the guilty pleasures, she did a wonderful job in creating the aura of sadness and melancholy around her character.
I considered hers is a fine piece of acting.
Do you know the director Giuseppe Tornatore? He is also the director of "Cinema Paradiso", it was no wonder I had a familiar feeling after I saw this movie.
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