Two Women
Short description
Set in Italy in 1943, Two Women follows Cesira, a widow who runs a small grocery shop in Rome and raises her thirteen-year-old daughter, Rosetta. As Allied bombing makes the capital increasingly dangerous, Cesira decides to leave the city and take the girl to her native region in the Ciociaria countryside, where she hopes they will be safe among relatives. The war reaches the countryside as well, and amid shortages and the arrival of refugees, mother and daughter meet Michele, a young intellectual with antifascist sympathies who becomes close to Cesira. The film is based on Alberto Moravia's novel.
Vittorio De Sica directed, with Cesare Zavattini writing the screenplay and Carlo Ponti producing. It sits between The Roof and Boccaccio '70 in the run of features De Sica made across the postwar decades. Sophia Loren plays Cesira, with Eleonora Brown as Rosetta, Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michele and Raf Vallone among the supporting cast. The film is an Italian-French production.
Audience response has stayed strong over the decades: on IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from around 14,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8/10 from roughly 588 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Cary Grant (1904-1986), with whom she had previously worked, informed Sophia Loren of her Oscar win. He called her in Italy with the news directly from Los Angeles. The statuette was handed to her through actress Greer Garson (1904-1996).
- According to Sophia Loren, the film's plot made such an impression on director Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) that he repeatedly cried during the filming of particularly touching scenes.
- Sophia Loren won an Oscar for Best Actress for her work in this film. It was the first Academy Award presented for a role in a foreign-language film.
- Anna Magnani (1908-1973) was initially cast in the lead role, but she fell ill and was unable to participate in filming. It was Magnani who suggested giving the role to Sophia Loren, telling director Vittorio De Sica that if Loren didn't mind playing a mother raising a teenage daughter, the role should go to her.
- The novel of the same name (1957) by Alberto Moravia (1907-1990), and consequently the film, are based on real events – the rapes of women in the Chochara district by Moroccan gumiers (soldiers used in auxiliary units of the French army between 1908 and 1956) following the Battle of Monte Cassino during World War II.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
