Sophia Loren won the Best Actress Oscar for her versatile performance in Two Women, a moving drama set in the closing days of WW2. Loren was only 26 at the time but effortlessly projects a level of maturity as an older, single mother. Widowed shopkeeper Cesira (Loren) decides to close things up and flee Rome with her 13-year-old Rosetta (Eleonora Brown) due to the increase in Allied bombing. Reaching her rural native village, things start to get grimmer when a shy, brainy young man, Michele (Jean Paul Belmondo), to whom both have grown attached, is forced by German soldiers to guide them through the mountains. With reports of the Allies entering Rome, Cesira decides they should return. But on their journey back they have a horrifying encounter with Moroccan soldiers that leaves both traumatized and Rosetta no longer an innocent. Producer Carlo Ponti, Loren’s husband, had bought the rights to the novel by Alberto Moravia (The Conformist), and American filmmaker George Cukor was originally slated to direct. But Cukor dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by veteran Italian actor/director Vittorio De Sica.
“The beauty of Miss Loren’s performance is in her illumination of a passionate mother role. She is happy, expansive, lusty… she is grave and profound… Signor De Sica’s direction has the qualities of fullness and momentum that are familiar and so compelling in his films.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
Chris D. discusses Two Women on the New Beverly blog.
Kim Morgan discusses Two Women on the New Beverly blog.
