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[everythingvintagegothandgeeky]

This movie takes a 180° turn at 1:19 hours, possibly a signature of Vittorio De Sica, judging from his earlier movies with Sophia Loren (Scandal in Sorrento, The Sign of Venus). Loren is again a woman who 'belongs to no one' and is attached to no one in love but in reality it's much more complicated than that. Whenever Loren is a protagonist, its the same profile over and over. In The Sign of Venus, she isn't the lead heroine, so the movie is refreshingly sad to which I massively related (especially Cesira's character). But La Ciociara ("Two Women") is a U turn from the beaten road to set it against the backdrop of WW2 with Germans constantly bombing Rome, the impact of Mussolini and the attitudes towards him, and the Allies (Moroccans, basically) harassing villages. I especially liked Miguele's character a lot. Also, something I've noticed between early Hollywood vs Italian films is that, Italian films tend to have a linear plot with a singular objective and the progression is quite prominent. But Italian films are bold to include some social issues like violence against women and such. And Loren, even though, she's a bombshell, she's far far stronger than Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Harlow and the other known bombshells. Loren is smart and always has an ulterior motive after the achievement of which, she flips the bird. Almost always, Loren's character is that of a seductive village/town girl. Early Hollywood wouldn't ever address feminism or female roles in this way. The plots are far too complex with a connection in the climax point, which makes the movies ultra interesting to watch. I did watch a grainy version of this movie with bad audio which took away half the aesthetic, but nonetheless it deserves a bit lesser acclaim than what it received.