Divorce Italian Style (1961)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Divorce Italian Style (1961) – P. Germi

Marcello Mastroianni virtually disappears into the character of a Sicilian Don/Baron who wants to escape his cloying wife in order to pursue his teenage cousin (bear with me, as this is satire) – however, Italian law does not allow divorce (in 1961).  The law does allow a husband who discovers his wife in flagrante delicto to kill her.  So, the Baron embarks on a campaign to find his wife an illicit lover (after fantasizing about other ways she might die).  Of course, things do not go entirely to plan.  Yes, this is a very black comedy and perhaps a distasteful one in this day-and-age; however, the Baron is far from a hero and the aging Lothario that he (and other Sicilian elders) imagines himself to be is ridiculed here.  Along the way, director Pietro Germi takes pot-shots at Italian society and norms (for example, the prohibition on sex before marriage).  There is a great nearly self-referential moment when the Baron finds that his wife is going to have her tryst during the opening of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita which was then scandalizing Italy with its sexual frankness (of course, it starred Mastroianni).  The film dazzles in its cinematography and production design – sharp black-and-white and beautiful Sicilian locales.  Did I mention that the entire plot appears to be a flashback (with flashbacks within the flashback)?  Really this is a masterpiece of comic timing and characterizations.