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| Malena [2000] | ![Malena [2000]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B7XW1674L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Actors: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Category: DVD
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £3.98
You Save: £12.01 (75%)
New (13) from £3.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 4095
Format: Pal, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled), Italian (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Running Time: 88 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017188883962
ASIN: B00005U1XE
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Release Date: January 7, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
When 12-year-old Renato, riding through his small Italian town on his new bicycle, sees the voluptuous Malena, little does he know he's beginning an infatuation that will carry him through the tumultuous days of World War II. Malena begins as an enraptured depiction of Renato's adolescent mind--chronicling the way he stares, hypnotised, at Malena's garters pressing through the material of her tight skirt, or his frustrated rebellion against the indignity of wearing short pants--but soon transforms into a portrait of small-town prejudice. Malena's looks spark lust and envy in the townspeople; when her husband dies in combat, the gossip only intensifies, to the point where Malena is dragged into court to defend herself against accusations of adultery. When the women of the town refuse to sell her edible food at the market, Malena has little choice but to become what she's been unjustly accused of being. At the end, a twist of fate turns this tale of longing and jealousy into a heartbreaking love story. Monica Bellucci exudes the can't-help-it eroticism that makes Malena such a lightning rod for everyone's desires with a beauty reminiscent of Isabelle Adjani. The movie seems to wander at times, but the ending has a powerful emotional impact. From the director of Cinema Paradiso.--Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Intense and powerfully moving darma September 3, 2008
I cried through out this movie it was absolutley breathtakin. the movie explores the brutality and consequences of gossip and betrayal but is able to throw in a bit of humour.
i recommend this movie to every one
 Don't understand the interest of this movie May 19, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
I watch it as a friend lend me the DVD. As far as I am concerned I do not understand the interest of this movie, I was almost stopping it. I do not understand why the first love and pulsions of a young guy are interesting, and furthemore the way they describe malena is a cliche...
The pretending historic background has no interest since it is not developed at all.
The movie take so much time for saying nothing.
As a conclusion, I prefer paying for stupig movie which will distract me and not this one which bored me. I would not recommand it.
Powerful and Harrowing February 21, 2008
For once, the first few reviews posted here are of a very high quality indeed and I can do little but to commend them to a potential purchaser.
In a smallish town in Sicily in WW2, 12 year old Renato is experiencing all sorts of sexual pangs, focussed largely around Malena (Maddalena), the young wife of an Army officer absent on duty in Albania. All the men of the town openly lust after her, all the women envy, hate or pretend to despise her, despite her apparent virtue (in which both men and women prefer not to believe). Her husbqnd having been killed (or so it seems), Malena is forced by hunger, her own lusts (?) and need of every kind to take some local lovers and then a German officer from the defending/occupying force. She seems to be thinking "if they think it of me, well then I shall be like that!". After the Germans leave (the town being bombed by the Americans) she is stripped, shorn, shamed by the women. No-one lifts a hand to help her. Renato suffers watching her agony. She leaves the town, covered head to toe in black.
Later a one-armed man returns from war, Malena's husband. He is also shunned and later assaulted. Renato sends him a message and he leaves the town, only to return with his wife. They face down the mob in the rebuilding community and are given respect; they stay. A harrowing film, for me.
I was unhappy the perpetrators never really got punished, but in a way that was not the main point, which was, perhaps, the dislocation that war brings to society, which after "peace" comes can resume its apparently civilized face.
Beautiful February 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Anyone who's seen 'Citizen Kane' remembers the wonderful speech given by an elderly man reflecting on the memory from his youth of seeing a woman in a white dress; though she never saw him, and they never spoke, he remembered her for the rest of his life. Essentially, 'Malena' is that story writ large.
This may well turn out to be Monica Bellucci's signature role. Not only did this film launch her as a leading lady to international audiences, but it also confronts head-on the manner in which she, and countless other beauties of stage and screen, have been and continue to be treated by the world: lusted after, resented, and finally broken down. Some have condemned 'Malena' as voyeuristic, objectifying the leading lady; but this film is really a comment on objectification and voyeurism, a poignant tale about how a woman's looks result in her being ostracised by her community. As it is all told from the perspective of a twelve-year old boy, understandably infatuated, it's also a touching coming of age story; and it's all played out against the backdrop of fascist-ruled Sicily in the late days of the Second World War. That's a lot to squeeze into eighty-odd minutes.
Like any truly great film, 'Malena' takes the viewer through a myriad of emotions. It's hilariously funny, showing us the awkwardness of puberty and the protagonist's generally absurd fantasies involving the object of his lust. It's very sexy, the camera truly loving every inch of the impossibly gorgeous Ms Bellucci. It's tense and disturbing, the shadow of war constantly threatening to break the tranquility of the picturesque town. And it's harrowing to see how the town's gossip about Malena escalates into suspicion, contempt, and ultimately persecution.
All in all, 'Malena' is simply beautiful. Perhaps it falls back a little too often on chocolate box visuals of the idyllic, sunkissed Sicillian coast, but then this is a tale told by a man looking back on his youth, a period of our lives that - in spite of whatever hardships are endured - we all tend to look back on through rose-tinted glasses. It captures wonderfully the bittersweet longing of adolescent infatuation, in a refreshingly frank and honest manner. Indeed, too frank and honest for some it seems, as reputedly this version (as previously mentioned, less than an hour and a half long) has been cut by over fifteen minutes, excising material which was deemed to have pushed the boundaries of voyeurism and sexual fantasy a little too far; to the best of my knowledge there is no uncut version yet available in the UK or US, annoyingly. For this reason alone I have held off purchasing this DVD, in the hope that the uncut version may eventually be released. But even at a shorter running time, 'Malena' is a must-see film to be cherished. Anyone who has ever loved someone who didn't even know they existed will have something to relate to.
 vacous, but luminous! August 25, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
the only reason really lets face itis for us men to stare in awe at the astonishing ms bellucci; who does not dissapoint.sadly that cannot be said for the rest.uncomfortably voyeuristic for me.
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