Click to play videoNothing short of a mini-masterpiece, the Italian film Malena is the coming-of-age story of a 12-year-old boy in Sicily who becomes fixated with the town's most beautiful and voluptuous resident, the wife of a local soldier who's away at war.
The lady in question, Malena, played by Monica Bellucci, has the entire town in a tizzy. Men of all ages find her utterly irresistible, and to the women, she's a slut, a home-wrecker and also the target of some very malicious gossip.
Renato, the young Italian boy who's become obsessed with her might actually be the only person in the whole town who has an idea of who she really is. Having climbed up a tree outside her house, Renato has spied on her, he's seen her dancing sadly with her husband's photograph.
He's also followed her across town when she visited her father's grave. When he notices men in the town staring at her lustfully, and women giving her spiteful looks, Renato creates a sort of imaginary world in his head where he becomes Malena's protector.
It's a boyish fantasy and sometimes he acts upon it, like that time in school when he fights with the boys who make cheap comments about her.
When word comes that Malena's husband has been killed in war, she's shattered both emotionally and financially. She ends up becoming exactly what the townspeople had seen her as all along.
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the director of that excellent Italian film Cinema Paradiso, the audience sees this story too unfold through the eyes of the young boy.
And much like Cinema Paradiso actually, this film, Malena is also essentially a growing-up story. It's the performances of the two leads that really infuses colour into this story.
Monica Bellucci burns up the screen with her sex appeal, she's also just remarkably beautiful, so she uses that to construct a character that is sometimes girl-next-door, sometimes sex-kitten. What's more she does this with almost no dialogue.
Meanwhile, Giuseppe Sulfaro, the young boy who plays Renato, proves himself to be such a bright young actor because he plays the part with just the right degree of wide-eyed-curiosity and balances that appropriately with quiet maturity.
The film is shot dreamily, the town is filmed postarcd-perfect and these factors lend character to this story which is told in flashback by Renato. If you enjoy good foreign cinema and you don't have a problem reading subtitles, then don't miss Malena. You're sure to find it on DVD, it's a film you cannot help losing your heart to.
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