Customer Reviews

Night Full of Rain [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is no doubt that Lina Wertmuller is an intelligent filmmaker. Unfortunately, politics play a key role in many of her movies, which often mar the more interesting (and basic) themes she's dealing with. Here a Communist Italian journalist (Giancarlo Giannini) meets and seduces feminist Candice Bergman. He is brutish to her at first, but later wins her by chasing after her like a passionate lover. They marry, but after 10 years the marriage is one of routine. She wants the passionate lover back again; he wants stability. Wertmuller uses a Greek chorus throughout to emphasize her political male-female warfare concerns. The problems of this marriage are of great interest, but Wertmuller distracts and deflates our interest with her politics (communism, feminism, the fall of civilization through over-industrialization, etc.). The first half-hour is overly talky, but later her use of flashbacks becomes very effective. In fact, technically it's quite a good movie.

Overall it's not a bad movie, but definitely falls short from Lina W.'s other masterpieces, such as Seven Beauties. I've found this film interesting at the beginning, but it looses that special Lina's steam toward the end. And the message of this film is rather unclear - it's not a comedy and it's not a piercing tragedy as in Seven Beauties. I would recommend it for those who like to get more familiar with Italian cinema and with Lina W.'s works.

NIGHT FULL OF RAIN BY LINA WERTMULLER
great movie like all others by wertmuller . She always make us laguh even though she is tackling the most serious themes such as mafia (the seduction of Mimi) children's exploitation, in ciao professore, man-woman relationships in "night full of rain" and "sotto sotto", holocaust in seven beauties , politicians' hypocrisy and so forth ...
always delightfull, always entertaining, always dead serious.