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![]() ![]() | The Most Beautiful Wife Actors: Alessio Orano, Ornella Muti, Tano Cimarosa, Joe Sentieri, Enzo Andronico Director: Damiano Damiani Genres: Indie & Art House, Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense UR 2006 1hr 48min What's your idea of justice... have you ever thought about it? Spurning the advances of a Mafia don's cruel nephew, a beautiful peasant girl is punished for upholding her family's honor by being abducted and robbed of ... more » |
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Movie ReviewsA unique love tragedy in a small town in rural Sicily Pork Chop | Lisbon, Portugal | 02/03/2008 (3 out of 5 stars) "a"La Moglie piu bella ... The most beautiful wife", filmed by Damiano
Damiani, in 1969 and 1970 is a remarkable movie even 37 years later, incredibly. The cinematographical quality is excellent, from the sharpness of the images, the quality of the dialog, and the generous wide-screen presentation of the filming. The picture, in color, doesn't seem to have aged, except for the vehicles shown in the streets, mainly Fiat compacts and Alfa Romeus. Clearly, Ornella Muti is the star of this picture, by her natural acting ability, charisma, confidence and ability to blend into the story, playing a peasant 15 year old girl, who's a mobster's object of desire in rural Sicily. Alessio Orano, with his youthful looks, yet sinister inner demons, plays a man who decides to forcibly compel Ornella into marriage, despite his belligerant, aggressive, arrogant, self-centered personality. The movie is not so much a love story, or even, a mobster story, but a unique love tragedy, apparently based in a poor and small farm town of perhaps 4,000 residents. With so many movies candy-coating romance, the director chose a more realistic approach, standing out for this reason. The underworld presence ( organized criminal gangs) and its associated corruption of public works contracts, influence peddling on public officials, and manipulation of the criminal justice system, is acknowleged in this Sicilian location. The power of this film on spectators, is the tension and psychological complexities that are felt, as the entire savings of a small farmer is threatened of instant anihilation with and his family's lives at stake as blow-back from the the mobter, should he move forward with his complaint in the courts. The godfather, warns the youth, Vito a soldier, against chasing women, advising instead to focus on work and family alone. But, in carrying out his advice, the whole plan spins out of control. The script skillfully articulates the perils of social pressure on one's reputation and economic ruin when one opposes evil forces of the criminal underground. The risks of being ostracized is very real. Similarly, the mobster is very sensitive to ridicule, disrespect, controversy over his own marital status and fiance's behavior, by his friends, in the organization and among the public. As such, threats, secret oaths, violence, pistols, rival crime gangs, the obligation of beneficiaries of corruption to give back favors in the future, the taboo of stooling, the lack of financial resources for residents to move out of town to escape this state of affairs, is told. The stakes are high, in such a small town, to the point that the mobster enrolls several colleagues in the organization to perjure themselves in confirming a made up version of the facts, coupled with the ease inhiring the best attorney money can buy, which the poor can't do. More could have been done in the humor department, although seeing Ornella milking a goat was unexpected. Overall, this is a captivating work, with a young Ornella Muti filmed at 15 years old, yet as mature and charismatic as we've seen her in other films." |