The film, based on the novel of the same title by Alberto Moravia, was adapted by the director Vittorio De Sica with Cesare Zavattini. The story of Cesira (Sophia Loren) and her daughter Rosetta begins in Rome, in the streets of the ancient neighbourhood of Trastevere, where Cesira has a shop in via Giulio Cesare Santini.
The difficulties caused by WWII force the women to leave Rome via the Tiburtina train station to reach Cesira’s birthplace, called Sant’Eufemia by Moravia. Both the book and the film bring to light fairy-tale and little-known places in Lazio: the mountainous area of Itri (province of Latina), the countryside of Cerveteri which becomes a passing place for Allied tanks, the village of Vallecorsa (province of Frosinone) and Fondi with its deconsecrated church of St. Francis of Assisi, the setting for the rape of the two women by Moroccan soldiers in the French army.
The film, based on the novel of the same title by Alberto Moravia, was adapted by the director Vittorio De Sica with Cesare Zavattini. The story of Cesira (Sophia Loren) and her daughter Rosetta begins in Rome, in the streets of the ancient neighbourhood of Trastevere, where Cesira has a shop in via Giulio Cesare Santini.
The difficulties caused by WWII force the women to leave Rome via the Tiburtina train station to reach Cesira’s birthplace, called Sant’Eufemia by Moravia. Both the book and the film bring to light fairy-tale and little-known places in Lazio: the mountainous area of Itri (province of Latina), the countryside of Cerveteri which becomes a passing place for Allied tanks, the village of Vallecorsa (province of Frosinone) and Fondi with its deconsecrated church of St. Francis of Assisi, the setting for the rape of the two women by Moroccan soldiers in the French army.
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Sofia Loren, Eleonora Brown
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sophia Loren – Vicolo Orticelli, Itri (LT)
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Vittorio De Sica, Sofia Loren, Eleonora Brown
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Sofia Loren
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion, Les Films Marceau, Cocinor, Société Générale de Cinématographie
In 1943, widowed Cesira and her adolescent daughter Rosetta flee from a Rome damaged by bombing, to find refuge in her family village in Ciociaria. Here Cesira falls in love with Michele, a young anti-Fascist intellectual. After 8 September, Cesira decides to return to Rome, during the journey, both she and Rosetta are raped by Moroccan soldiers.
