Malena

There were two stories in this Italian (subtitled in English) movie. One was about a teenage boy Renato’s journey into manhood and the other of the most beautiful and sexiest lady of a small town in Italy during World War II. Whenever and wherever Malena walks she literally turned every head in town towards her. Once her husband is killed in the war, every man intensifies his desire to be with Malena.

Renato, the school going kid, infatuates about Malena and daydreams of their life together. Sometimes they are actors in movies. Some of these imaginative sequences are so funny it's hard to stop laughing. Other dreams of his are much more sexual in nature. But nothing very vulgar or obscene or out of line comes up. Instead, the movie is filmed with an honest sensuality, and it never overplays its hand when it comes to the erotic parts. Some of the teenager problems and their solutions have been filmed grossly but in certainly amusing way. Malena's trial for alleged promiscuity was not only put in , to create laughs for viewers but the fee which Malena paid to his lawyer for winning her case made a lot of difference in her life.

Malena had to turn into a prostitute for earning a living and then finally when the war is over she is beaten up by town’s women for snatching their men’s away from them. The scene where all these town women are kicking, abusing, cursing, dragging and beating and forcefully shortening her blonde hairs and what not !!!,was brilliantly filmed and was one of the most powerful scene in the movie. When the town starts to turn against her, Renato wants badly to be her protector. His age and his inability to summon up the courage to speak to her, however, limit his ability to come to her rescue.

Just before the climax return of Malena’s husband finally gives a chance to Renato to prove his goodwill and protective feelings for Malena and he does so by helping Malena’s husband in finding her, by throwing an anonymous letter to him explaining about Malena’s situation. Finally Malena returns to the same town with her husband and it definitely required lot of courage to be in those people after what this town did to her.

Strictly a movie not supposed to be watched with family but nonetheless it entertains all the time. I have seen such a nice foreign movie after long time. The last good one I saw was ‘Run Lola Run’

My Rating : 6.7/10.0
Entertainment Value: 80%