WWII: TWO WOMEN

Film:                             WWII: TWO WOMEN

Date of Production:     1960

Director:                      Vittorio De Sica

Writers:                       Alberto Moravia, Cesare Zavattini

Stars:                            Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raf Vollne

Film Location:             Italy

Production Company:  Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

            This film entitled, WWI: Two Women, is a film that was made in 1960 which starred Sophia Loren was written by Alverto Moravia and directed by Vittovio De Sica.  This film is about a worldly business woman from Rome (Cesira) who is forced to vacate her home and travel to a small village in Italy where she was born to take refuge during the Second World War.  Cesira travels with her thirteen year old daughter, Rosetta.  The film uses many symbols and metaphors to incorporate meanings of what kind of relationship the war had on people and society.  “In La Ciociara, Moravia provides omens and premonitions throughout the narrative to prepare the reader for the tragedies to come for the mother and daughter protagonists, Cesira and Rosetta.” (Kozma-Southall, 208)  During this modernism era, film was used to portray ideas in visual mediums that can reach more of the human senses than merely reading a book.  “Some elements of that special language that is metaphorical and symbolic, a language that creates a series of proximate or possible realties rather than a reality that is literally true- through it also does intersect with the literal. (Rosenstone, 48)  This film can be categorized under the description of 'innovative drama' because it deals with the subject of everyday people during the war. "The directors of these innovative works are often leftists or revolutionary sympathizers, people who find not just the stories but the form of the mainstream film to be suffused with individualist, capitalist values which as people working for change, they wish to combat." (50, Rosenstone)

            During the film, the two contrasting personalities of the mother and daughter are clearly displayed.  Cesira is a bold, fearless, assertive, and worldly woman which is represented in both the book and the film as a goat figure. Rosetta, on the other hand, is naïve, young, innocent, blameless, pure; like a lamb.  These metaphors are shown in the film during several scenes.  In the scene where Rosetta and Cesira exit the train, the daughter follows everything the mother does.  When Cesira puts her suitcase on her head, Rosetta quickly mimics and follows.  There is a scene where the village is shown scavenging through the hillside.  This scene is very similar to the way animals graze for food and can be seen as a metaphor to goats/ sheep/ and lamb- animals grazing.  Like the goat, these people will eat anything they can find digestible.  This metaphor is also used as foreshowing the future of events in the film and predicts something unpleasant is about to happen to Rosetta.  Just as in the bible and other secular belief systems, the lamb is representative of sacrifice.  Eventually the mere mention of “lambness” or “goatness” becomes a literary shorthand telling the reader that something regarding Rosetta is about to happen- the gang rape she suffers.  This rape is also used to symbolize something much bigger regarding the war.  Often countries are referred to as “the mother country.” This mother and daughter metaphor is also comparable to Cesira and Rosetta in the film; because of the actions of the mother countries being at war, the people have suffered.  The rape is symbolic of the country and people suffering.

            The style that the film, WWII: Two Women, takes is neorealism.  Neorealism is a genre that defines itself very differently from Hollywood films.  Neorealism is the perspective of everyday, ordinary people and are portrayed.  Another concept that is focused on in this film is Solidarity.  “Solidarity is not only an awareness of common interests; it depends also on intellectual and emotional ties linking the members of the collective.”  (235, Smith)  This solidarity is shown in the film by showing all of the many struggles and hardships Cesira and Rosetta suffer.  During this time in history after Mussolini was captured, Europe was left being devastated in every way.  The land was destroyed; the people were hurting for resources, food, and work.  “Economic difficulties plagued Europe and after World War I.  Many people were thrown out of work by the swift reduction of military need, and some countries such as Britain never returned to robust employment.” (257, Smith)

            During this time, there was a rise in Fascism in Italy.  The Fascism in Italy did not have anti-sematic elements.  “Under the guise of militant nationalism, the Fascist government of Mussolini that came to power in 1922 prompted state violence as an end in itself.  In claiming to create a utopia, it papered over the problems of modern life.  After years of wartime deprivation, citizens flocked to leaders who promised them a rapid end to their suffering through a victorious state.” (222, Smith)  The Fascists were portrayed in the film as two men going around looking for men and boys to force to fight for Italy in the War.  The film, however did not focus on Fascists and did not dedicate many scenes to it.  The character, Michele, was a unique symbol in the film and was used as the voice of reason.  He was shown as a good, God fearing man who was very educated and wanted the common people to take over the world and saw the city dwelling people as “bad” and impure.

            The thesis of this film is that war drastically effected the way civilians, especially women had to adapt to survive.  Conditions of war often hurt civilians by displacing them from the home, separating them from the men, and be openly vulnerable for sexual attack.  This was shown as these two women struggled to survive, being displaced from their home and eventually victims of gang rape.  These types of experiences were very common among women during and after the war.  "Adding to the trauma of everyday life the army rampaged through southeaster, eastern, and central Europe during 1945, even after the war's end; looting and raping occurred everywhere but with particular brutality in Hungary and Germany.  Their own country devastated by the German invasion and their own families destroyed.  Soviet soldiers raped and gang raped any females between the ages of 10 and eighty." (401, Smith) 
 In one of the first scenes, the mother Cesira sleeps with the butcher to obtain money she needs for her journey.  This scene shows how women were forced to do whatever they could to get resources they needed to survive the war.  "Meanwhile, in Western Europe a more subtle kind of post war sexual dynamic held sway.  Since often the surest way to survive was to trade sex for food and other goods, service obligatory prostitution became common. (402, Smith) The film ends with a scene of Cesira and Rosetta along in a house. Rosetta holds her daughter as she tells her that Michele has been killed.  The frame spans out showing a type of cannon figure over them.  This is meant to represent war and how much bigger it is than the people that are involved in it.  Sophia Loren won an academy award for her role in Two Woman.  There was also protest and outrage from Moroccan people for the portrayal of Moroccan men in the rape scene.