TCM Comments Marriage Italian Style (1964)

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:10]Hi, I'm Dave Carer. Thanks for staying with me tonight on TCM. Up next, our star of the month, Sophia Luren, returns in a movie she personally ranks as one of the highlights of her career. And there are many people who would agree.

[00:00:22]from Italy in 1964. Directed by Vtorio Dika and co-starring Marella Mastroani.

[00:00:28]It's marriage Italian style. The film follows a tempestuous 22-year relationship between two seemingly mismatched people. Dominico, a refined but self-centered businessman, and Filimina, a naive prostitute. It's a relationship that's sometimes tender, occasionally heartbreaking, and at all times sizzling with the palpable chemistry between the two leads.

[00:00:51]Marchela Mastriani and Sophia Luren first co-starred together a decade earlier in another Italian comedy titled Too Bad She's Bad which also starred Victoriao Dika although he wasn't the director on that film they hit it off right away and loved working together and audiences loved seeing them together on screen by the time they made Marriage Italian style both had become international stars had recently starred in two landmark films for director Federico Fellini Lulchvita and 8 and a half and Loren had won an Oscar for her starring role in the 1960 Italian drama Two Women directed by Dika. Both actors had also just worked with Dika on the hit 1963 comedy Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, which won the Oscar for best foreign language film. They followed it up with Marriage Italian Style, cementing their status as one of the most popular screens of the era. Sophia Loren's performance in this film earned her another best actress Oscar nomination from 1964. Here are Sophia and Marello in Marriage Italian Style.

[00:02:11]Sophia Luren worked with many of the most popular and talented leading men in Europe and Hollywood, but the bond she shared with Marchella Mastani was truly unique. At the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival, she reminisced about her experiences working with Mastroani and meeting him for the first time a decade before they made Marriage Italian Style.

[00:02:32]She said that from the moment they met, it was like he was my old friend. They made a total of 14 films together. Three of which were directed by Ptoriio Dika.

[00:02:41]Yesterday, today and tomorrow from 1963, followed by Marriage Italian Style and finally Sunflower released in 1970. Like Mroyani, Dika was another of Sophia Luren's closest collaborators, and she credited him with teaching her how to act. She never had any formal acting training, but she learned by working with Dika early on in her career. Under his direction, she received two best actress Oscar nominations for Marriage Italian Style and for a drama released four years earlier in 1960, Two Women, which she won, making her the first performer ever to win an Oscar for a foreign language film. Up next, Sophia Luren stars opposite Victoria Gosman in a supernatural comedy from Italy in 1967.

[00:03:28]>> Next on TCM, Ghosts, Italian style. Then a special day and later made in Paris.

[00:03:36]There's no tariff on TCM tonight.