Production Companies Compagnia Cinematografica Champion (as Comp. Cinemat. Champion), Les Films Marceau, Cocinor, Société Générale de Cinématographie (as Societe General de Cinematographie)
Other Titles • La Ciociara • Two Women • ...und dennoch leben sie (1961) • Paysanne aux pieds nus (1961)
Synopses for Two Women (1960)
1.
Sophia Loren won a much-deserved Academy Award for her performance in this 1960 classic by neo-realist filmmaker Vittorio de Sica. A last-minute substitute for Anna Magnani, Loren reached deep within her own memories of wartime experiences for her portrait of a widow struggling to survive in battle-scarred Italy along with a teenage daughter (Eleonora Brown). The film begins with both women sharing romantic feelings toward a young man (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a story line disrupted by the ravages of World War II and the horrifying rape of both mother and daughter in a church by Allied Moroccan soldiers. The aftermath of this atrocity finds both characters dealing with even more, varying shades of grief, as the war seems to sap all that they had treasured and leaves them with only the bare bones of their emotional and physical survival. De Sica's capacity to render tragedy both with the starkest of strokes and the most delicate of emotions has never been more impressive than in this film, and Loren's shatteringly honest portrayal is a watershed in movie history. --Tom Keogh
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Sophia Loren stars as Cesira, a devoted mother and a successful small business owner, in this Vittorio De Sica's TWO WOMEN, a dramatic adaptation of Alberto Moravia's touching novel, CESIRA. When the Allies begin bombing Mussolini's Rome, Cesira and her 12-year-old daughter, Rosetta (Eleonara Brown), travel by train and foot to the countryside where Cesira was born. The two women find food and shelter with other fugitives, and stand witness to some of the horrors of war. After the Allies land and head North from Rome, Cesira and Rosetta begin the long walk home. Resting inside of a Church, mother and daughter are discovered and gang raped by a cruel band of soldiers. Rosetta is traumatized, and temporarily becomes mute. Recovering from her initial shock, Rosetta displays a hardened licentious persona. But when Cesira informs Rosetta that a boy she adored has been killed, Rosetta's true feelings come to the surface in an outpouring of grief. Both Loren and Brown turn in wonderful performances as they struggle to survive and maintain their love for each other.
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Coming soon!
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Hollywood Classic
Sophia Loren deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar-the first to a non-American actress in a foreign language film-for this Vittorio De Sica film, adapted by screenwriter Cesare Zavattini from an Alberto Moravia novel. Though the movie is not the greatest of De Sica-Zavattini collaboration, Loren is a marvel to behold. She plays Cesira, a young widow in 1943 Italy who leaves her grocery store in San Lorenzo in the hands of her sometime lover (Raf Vallone), fleeing Allied bombing with her teenaged daughter, Rosetta (Eleanora Brown), to return to her native village. There, after an arduous journey, she meets Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), with whom Rosetta falls in love. But this is only the beginning of a trail marked with tragedy. Loren also won the Best Actress Award at Cannes and the same honor from the British Film Academy; more importantly, she demonstrated in this film that she was a mature actress with talent to match her looks. Even deglamorized, she was still magnificent. Director, Vittorio De Sica also won an Oscar for this film.
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Realistic heart-wrenching story of an Italian widow who along with her young 13 year old daughter are raped by Allied Moroccan soldiers during WWII.
Intensely moving performance by Sophia Loren deservedly won her an Oscar for Best Actress.
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