Events / Talking Pictures

Each season takes a specific theme or personality from the world of cinema. The format is a brief spoken introduction based on a prepared handout, the screening of the film, and an informal follow-up discussion.  Screenings are usually in English.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 20.30

Film: DIVORZIO ALL’ITALIANA

Pietro Germi's biting satire of Sicilian male chauvinism, the culture of honour killings and the penal codes which reinforced the as yet unshamed patriarchy of the island's traditions came at a time when the new morality of the 1960s built up the momentum for reform of the Divorce laws in Italy. In the wake of Fellini's scandalous La dolce vita (1960) - referenced appositely in Germi's film - the underlying serious purpose of Divorzio is unmistakable, yet couched in a satire that resonates way beyond Sicily to embrace the whole of Italy and beyond. Marcello Mastroianni's idiosyncratic yet everyman Fèfè is a comic creation of genius. ‘...partakes of all the classic clichés about men, women and sex retailed in melodramatic Italian opera, ratcheted just far enough to become absurd.'(salon.com)