𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗲̀𝗻𝗮 | 4.7 ⭐️

❲♢ 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 ━━ Amidst the war climate, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.
❲♢ 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗧 ━━ Movie
❲♢ 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 ━━ R
❲♢ 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗥𝗘 ━━ Romance; Comedy; Drama; Melodrama; Coming-of-age story
❲♢ 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 ━━ December 13, 2030
❲♢ 𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗨𝗔𝗚𝗘 ━━ Italian
❲♢ 𝗣𝗢𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗬 ━━ 100%
❲♢ 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 ━━ 97%
❲♢ 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘 ━━ 100%

❲♢ 𝗕𝗢𝗫 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗘 ━━ $1,720,875,494
❲♢ 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 ━━ $13,000,000 + 13.5% of box office

❲♢ 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 ━━ Jung Sol
❲♢ 𝗥𝗢𝗟𝗘 ━━ Maddalena "Malèna" Bonsignore Scordìa (32-Year-Old Female)
❲♢ 𝗥𝗢𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗬𝗣𝗘 ━━ Lead Role
❲♢ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 ━━ Malèna is a Latin teacher at the local school. She inhabits the home of her husband, Nino. He's a soldier fighting in Africa. Malena is gorgeous. The whole town takes notice - the men and boys want her; the women want her gone. Everyone says horrible things about Malena. They paint her as a loose woman just because she's curvaceous and gorgeous.

❲♢ 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 ━━ Antonino "Nino" Scordìa
❲♢ 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 ━━ Primo Reggiani

CHARACTER'S MOST POPULAR SCENE

"Smoking Scene"

Malèna, her hair dyed a siren scarlett, walks into the plaza, takes a seat, places a cigarette in between her lips, and waits. Instantaneously, droves of men flock towards her with lighters, and her eyes are filled with a subtle, knowing grief as she allows one admirer to attend to her.

RECEPTION

It is fascinating to see how a character who barely speaks throughout the film's entirety can nonetheless be its heart and soul. Sol's powerful sensuality may have won her the role, but it is her quiet decisiveness that allows her to become the unlucky Malèna. When she speaks it is barely above a whisper, but there is something in her eyes that suggests a preparedness for the part, a deep understanding of the character's complexity.

The mystery that surrounds Malèna is largely due to the fact that we barely know anything about her. Everything we think we may know is merely a projection from supporting characters. Since we are never treated to her point of view, we only see things through the women's jealous glare and Renato's pesky peephole. We see her how the townsfolk want to see her, and since they choose to view her as a promiscuous harlot, that's exactly who she becomes. Malèna is a thesis on beauty, but it is also a commentary on the malleability of the person. Though she begins the film quiet and reserved, she soon transforms into the town's disgrace, a vulgar prostitute who sells herself to the Nazis. It is almost as if Malèna becomes who the townsfolk expect her to be, and there is something very interesting there.

Malèna decides she must pay the price of beauty in order to survive in a patriarchal world. This injustice is heartbreaking and simply wrong, it literally knocks the daylights out of poor Renato, but society is the way it is. Malèna is reduced to an object not because she wants to, but because in her world, a woman can only be two things: a Madonna or a whore; and if a woman has sensual features, a woman is a whore.

The climactic, violent scene depicting her punishment leaves one feeling empty. Here is a woman who never hurt a fly, only doing what she could to fill her stomach with bread.

This final plot point paints a frustrating picture of Malèna's reality: that a woman as charming as her can be known for nothing else but her physicality, and once that is taken away from her, she may no longer be worried about. Her lawyer sums it all up when he declares to the court, 'here is her crime: her beauty!'

- Lorenzo Escober, "The Price of Beauty: A Character Analysis of Malèna"