A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] **** (1977, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren) – Classic Movie Review 3,286

The 1977 Italian drama A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] is a special film, with Marcello Mastroianni superb as a persecuted gay radio announcer who meets a lonely mother (Sophia Loren) in Rome when Adolf Hitler is visiting Benito Mussolini in 1938.

Co-writer/director Ettore Scola’s 1977 Italian drama A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] is a special film, with Marcello Mastroianni superb as Gabriele, a persecuted gay radio announcer who meets a sentimental and resigned housewife, lonely mother of six Antonietta Taberi (Sophia Loren), on one particular day in Rome when Adolf Hitler is visiting Benito Mussolini in 1938. That special day is 8 May 1938.

Left alone at home in her tenement building when her fascist husband Emanuele (John Vernon) goes off to attend the historic event, Antonietta (Sophia Loren) strikes up a friendship with her secretive neighbour. Antonietta and Gabriele develop a life-changing special relationship as day turns into night.

As the pair engage in the empty building with the fascist parade going on outside, the theme of repression is movingly developed against the swirling political backdrop of approaching World War Two.

Both Italian superstar players are smashing in unusual roles for them – Loren drudgy and dowdy, Mastroianni scared and ageing. A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] won the 1978 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. As Italy’s official submission to the 1978 Academy Awards as Best Foreign Language Film, it was nominated for two Oscars – Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Mastroianni.

Also in the cast are Françoise Berd, Nicole Magny, Patrizia Basso, Tiziano De Persio, Maurizio Di Paolantonio, Antonio Garibaldi, Vittorio Guerrieri and Alessandra Mussolini.

Look out for the subtitled version on TV. Beware the dubbed US home video version.

A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] was restored in 2014 and screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Venezia Classici Award for Best Restored Film.

A Special Day [Una Giornata Particolare] is directed by Ettore Scola, runs 106 minutes, is made by Compagnia Cinematografica Champion and Canafox Films, is released by Gold Film (1977) (Italy), Cinema 5 Distributing (1977) (US) and Gala Film Distributors (1978) (UK), is written by Ettore Scola, (screenplay) Ruggero Maccari (screenplay) and Maurizio Costanzo (collaboration), is shot in Technicolor by Pasqualino De Santis, is produced by Carlo Ponti, is scored by Armando Trovaioli and is designed by Luciano Ricceri.

Ettore Scola, a leading figure in Italian cinema for four decades, died on 19 January 2016 at the age of 84. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the death of the film-maker who directed 41 films ‘leaves a huge void in Italian culture’. He was one of the last of a generation of great Italian writers and directors.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,286

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/