Wednesday, September 17, 2008
BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Lina Wertmuller's
This wonderful film with Giancarlo Giannini (very funny and sexy) and Mariangela Melato (uber bitch) somehow 'sweeps away' all of Wertmuller's political polemics and leaves us with a man and a woman marooned on an island with a lot of baggage to unload. There is a lot of talk in this film but it is good talk and, somehow, we are never weighed down by it.
It is beautiful to look at (as are Gianninin's expressive blue eyes) and if you can believe that Melato's hair never gets dirty and that she brought her eyeliner along you can get into the eternal struggle between man and woman. And it isn't even off putting for a non-player in that game!
I liked it very much and I wouldn't mind seeing it again although I won't make an effort to do it. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Incidentally, if you try to rent this film make sure that you don't mistake the Madonna remake (2002) for the original. A family project with her husband Guy Ritchie. I hear that it is awful. And I believe it.
Labels: best films
