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Sophia Loren, aside from being one of the most sumptuously sexy women I have ever seen, proves herself here to be a tremendous actress. She has a melodramatic Italian flair that impassions her lovably aggressive character, a widowed shopkeeper in Rome during the Allied bombing in WWII, who flees with her beloved daughter to her impoverish mountainous native region. Throughout the story, she proves to be a strong woman, seasoned by pain and not having lost the fire and fight in her.

Like many European films of its time, Two Women is all about the characters and the current on which they flow through the film, a realistic capsule of a time and place. Vittorio De Sica, who made the beautifully small-scale film The Bicycle Thief, which is about a relationship between father and son, forms a companion piece with Two Women, which is about a relationship between mother and daughter. He addresses strikingly the unbearable love between a parent and their child.

Truly one of the greatest Italian films, this is an absorbing, emotional, modest journey with wonderful music; coarse, down-to-earth cinematography from the wonderful old days of gritty film prints and old school hands-on editing; incredible acting not only from Loren but from the young actress playing her daughter, who drastically transforms; and also from Jean- Paul Belmondo, who convincingly plays completely against type; and a beautifully emotional final shot. For those who feel detached from older foreign films, especially neo-realist, I have yet to see an Italian neo-realist film any more alive than this one!

Sophia Loren became the first player to win an Acting Oscar for a foreign language film in Two Women or La Ciociara in her native Italy. She plays the title role here, the other woman being her daughter played in La Ciociara by Eleanora Brown.

The story here is a relatively simple one, Sophia and Eleanora leave Rome due to the bombing of Rome just prior to the Allied invasion of Italy. The political situation is in one state of flux to put it mildly. In a matter of days, Benito Mussolini was overthrown and General Badoglio put in charge of the government. But the Nazis suspecting something was afoot sent in troops and met the Allies in a pitched 21 day battle at Salerno which like Waterloo was a close run thing.

At one point Jean-Paul Belmondo asks a couple of stray British paratroopers who landed way up behind enemy lines why the Allies didn't land in Rome. In fact they almost did land an army there, but Eisenhower canceled the landing at the last moment and probably saved a lot of lives doing so.

But this isn't about great battles, it's about Two Women just trying to survive the ravages of war in the best way they can. Sophia decides their best place is in her old village, south towards Naples. Before the film ends, she's given plenty of reason to rethink that decision.

Sophia was the Best Actress in 1961 for this film and for reasons I don't understand it was not given any other Oscar nominations, including for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Director for Vittorio DeSica.

If La Ciociara has a fault it's that it's Sophia's show totally. The village characters and that of her one time lover Raf Vallone are left undeveloped. Only the daughter and young intellectual Belmondo who falls for the earthy Sophia seem to be on the verge of becoming three dimensional.

The subject matter could never have been done in an American studio with the Code still firmly in place. I remember back in the day La Ciociara was shown at the art house circuit and many young juveniles considered it a mark of daring to get in and see Sophia Loren expose more than her American films had done up to that time.

Sophia Loren deserved that Oscar, every bit of it. And you'll agree if you see La Ciociara.

It's WWII. Cesira (Sophia Loren) flees Rome away from the allied bombing for the sake of her 13 year old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown). She's a widow of a loveless marriage and she's the object of everyman's desire. They go back to Cesira's home village. The idealistic anti-Fascist Michele Di Libero (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls for her. Mussolini is imprisoned and Michele is overjoyed. They even help a couple of English soldiers. The situation deteriorates as the war closes in and food becomes scarce. A group of Germans force Michele to lead them back to their lines. As the Americans approach, the villagers clear out. Cesira decides to go back to Rome on their own. They take shelter in a bombed out church where they are both raped by a large group of Arab soldiers.

Sophie Loren is magnetic. She powers every scene. Eleonora Brown does a good job keeping up. The story meanders a little. There are a lot of unrelated things that pop up. All of a sudden, there's a Russian deserter. The randomness sometimes help the story. When the story moves to the German occupied town, it really starts to move. The tension gets ratcheted up higher and higher.

Sophia Loren was a well established star by 1960, and Vittorio De Sica was one of Italy's most renowned directors. They collaborated on the heart-rending drama "La ciociara" ("Two Women" in English), about a mother and her daughter traveling across the country during WWII, and how the mother tries to shield her daughter from the horrors of war and poverty. The movie isn't subtle about what it shows: it opens with a bombing raid on Rome, resulting in the destruction of buildings. The people can only wonder when the war will end.

The famous scene comes near the end. It must've been one of the most controversial things to show in a movie at the time, but it makes a strong point about what war does to people. Like Kenji Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu", the movie basically says that war destroys us as humans. Sophia Loren won a well deserved Oscar for her performance. I recommend it.

I acquired this movie quite a few years a go and only just had my first viewing and was frankly astonished at Sophia's performance. It is a multi-layered rich performance: her anger at men, her absolute devotion to her daughter, the sadness and acceptance at being a widow of a passionless marriage to a much older man, her confusion at awakening feelings of sensuality, her politicization. The last 30 minutes of this movie are heartbreaking, her horror, helplessness and numbness at what has happened to her daughter are some of the most powerful moments I have seen on film. A well deserved Oscar and Sophia, you are right up there with the gifted actors of the past century! 10 out of 10.

Sophia loren, undoubtedly and unarguably has delivered the greatest performance in the history of movie. Her performance as the widowed mother of a teen age girl in this movie that depicted the horrors of the second great war was absolutely heart-felt and perfect. Rarely can one actor or actress possibly rise to such occasion to deliver a performance of such magnitude. It demands pure talent. Full credit to the directing great Mr. De sica for his creation. Should be watched in its original version to get the best of it.

Italian shopkeeper Sophia Loren flees her war-ravaged city with her frail teenage daughter for a neighboring village to stay with relatives, but on the journey home, their lives are cruelly disrupted when the woman and her child are cornered by lusty soldiers. Loren's character is sensual and maybe loose, but she's never insensitive and one immediately feels a connection with her (and you can't take your eyes off her when she's on-screen). This is a perceptive drama, not so much a document on the horrors of war as it is a testament to the human condition, both good and bad, weak and strong. There are some lovely art-house flourishes and bits of humor dotting the script, but the film doesn't have a gripping, lasting impact, it doesn't stay with you or haunt you the way a timeless drama should. Loren passionately emotes and won a well-deserved Oscar, but the other performances are just serviceable; she dominates the proceedings. **1/2 from ****

I confess that this film was showing late one night on TCM and initially the idea of a war film was not an appealing prospect at one o'clock in the morning.

That being said,I realized how much we lose by prejudging film, and actors by their more recent performances. As Sophia Loren was popular before my time, I remember her from fluff and spy movies such as "Arabesque" with Gregory Peck. A forgettable film, at most. Not so for "Two Women".

The performance of her innocent daughter Rosetta, is also marked and memorable. Refugees from the bombing of Rome during World War II, Sophia Loren as Cesira, and her daughter are fleeing the city, come across relatives in the country, and encounter a harrowing fate.

The feel of the film is palpable and stark, the scene and the shadows of the men as they come across these two women in the effigy of a church, is ominous and effective. The expressions and body language of Loren are heart-rending and sorrowful, as we see her realize what has become of her daughter, what has become of their world. The scene I will remember most is where she is finally rescued, her daughter begins to sing, recovering from the attack. Cesira (Loren) turns her face outward, toward the window, ravaged and ruined, yet finding some strength to continue on. We see a multitude of emotions cross her face without uttering one word.

Truly a film not to be missed for Sophia Loren's performance alone. 9/10.

Sophia Loren deserved her Cannes Best Actress and Oscar awards for her performance. Belmondo also was interesting. But De Sica has directed better films (Bicycle Thieves, The Voyage, etc.) Renato Salvatori has a brief role towards the end of the film--but he always is interesting to watch. If the film belongs to Loren, so does it to the writer Alberto Moravia and screenplay writer Cesare Zavattini.

Two Women is powerful not just simply for its final half hour, even if that is, arguably (and I'd argue on the side of "yes"), some of the best drama Vittorio De Sica and his screenwriter Cesar Zavatinni created. It's a view into lives that, at least at the time, didn't get much time on cinema screens. We understand that this young mother, Cesira (VERY well deserved Academy Award winner Sophia Loren), has a kind of hard protective shell of the fiery, strong woman that today might seem to verge on being something to expect in an Italian or Spanish drama, but here is meant to be just that- a shell to guard off from the wretched horrors of a war which repeatedly she asks "will it end soon?" She also has to be strong for her thirteen year old daughter Rosetta (Eleonora Brown, excellent even if not considering it's a first performance), who still has a little innocence and admiration for those who are more good-hearted, if not as resourceful.

This type as mentioned is in Michel (Jean Paul Belmondo, a curiously low-key performance considering his big hype as a suave star in France), who is a resistance fighter that Cesira and Rosetta come across while traveling away from Rome during bombing raids. We see them (Michel and Cesira) getting close, maybe too close, though she recognizes in him one of the only vestiges of common sense and decency, even if in a slightly shrewd (or just practical) manner that she can't totally grasp. She's been through the war, right along with her daughter, and there's layers that Loren grasps that pierce through the character; De Sica knows that she's capable of reaching these very real dimensions even before she has to go full tilt into the tragedy of the rape scene in the church. Loren's absolutely stunning in her gorgeous beauty, but in a way that works to make a comment on how her character has to keep guarded as well. Sometimes a look is just enough to suggest something. Other times, men might get a little more forceful. There's suggestion beneath some of the bigger scenes, and Loren is fantastic at grabbing them for all their worth.

From the start, De Sica and Zavattini set the tone: people walking on a street, suddenly the alarms sound, running, bombs drop. Should be business as usual, but it's still staggering for the mind to grasp. In a way, Cesira and Rosetta are in the midst of a kind of apocalyptic atmosphere, and we as the audience, even as we know where history will lead the characters, get wrapped up in the maelstrom of violence (one moment that's important is when the mother and daughter walk along a quiet road, a man on a bicycle passes, and a plane swoops down, shooting, the women duck, but the man is killed - the women look startled for just a moment, but hide it and go on their way) and with some political discourse thrown in from time to time as well (these might be the only weak spots of the film, but still very good scenes with a quick pace and sharp attention to mixing real actors and "non" actors, a slightly elevated neo-realism). And there are memorable scenes before that last half hour- just seeing the Germans appear up in front of the Italians, menacing in an almost surreal two-dimensional fashion, verbally abusive, taking bread. Scenes precede this, like a couple of brutes who threaten Cesira with a gun. But this one strikes it hard: a state of mind in war cripples the mind.

Finally, they come to the abandoned church, and the infamous scene occurs (filmed with a very effective zoom lens on Rosetta's eyes at a crucial moment, a kind of approximate exclamation point). It's a very careful study in the disintegration of the human spirit at this point, and more than once, De Sica and his writer, as in times before, pull sincerely and harshly at the heart strings. This time, however, is like seeing a Lifetime TV movie as done by the most sincere dramatist, ready to gage the emotions just by presenting the devastation straight on, and enhancing a theme: the futility of escape in this environment. Rosetta can't stand that her mother didn't protect her more, she's almost shell-shocked, and after a tense scene riding back with an opera singing trucker (a small, great scene), she awakes at night to see she's run off with the trucker from before. She comes back, Cesira is furious, but not simply for that. A much greater tragedy has occurred, and it all comes crashing down. Even the most hardened and cynical moviegoer will be hard-pressed to hold back from crying as Loren brushes back her daughter's hair in the church, or tries to look away in the truck. And that final shot, however in sentiment as the final shots of Umberto D and Bicycle Thief, drive it on home like a dagger.

One of the best films of 1960; a touching masterpiece in Italian cinema from one of the masters (if that's over-praising it much forgive me).

Loren and her 12 year old daughter flee war torn Rome and head to the country where they face an uncertain future against a background of Italian, German and Allied soldiers battling for control.

Neo realist picture that beautifully portrays the life of ordinary people during the war and the love between mother and daughter. Loren is terrific, as is Belmondo and the whole thing is completely absorbing helped along by a terrific soundtrack.

I guess that the film of De Sica is very little in common with the excellent novel of Moravia on which it's based. In a novel one can immensely enjoy the detailed depictions of situations and reflections of practical and obstinate but very good-hearted and sharp-minded Cesira. In the film the narration is very chaotic and many situations or characters are treated in not a very profound way. Loren seems too glossy for a simple rude countrywoman and sometimes her performance seems quite stiff (the most convincing only in the sequence of waiting for her daughter who had gone to the dancing with Florindo). Such important character as Michele Festa was absolutely mistreated. In film he's only ridiculous with his clumsy wooing of Cesira. Indeed Michele in book is a kind of new formation intellectual that was moulded under the pressure of fascist regime but had acquired spontaneous but well-conscious anti-fascism. He's a gloomy reserved young man with the hidden tempests inside, outsider among the countrymen and his relatives, sometimes bursting into tantrums but with a gift of persuasion and imposing. You should have heard his powerful speech about "the corpses who imagine that they are alive" which is unfortunately much cut in film. And by the way he absolutely wasn't interested in women. So in general if you want to grasp all the tragedy of Ciociara you should first read a book and then it would be very ridiculous to compare it with the film where De Sica even in the most tragic moment didn't forget to set off Loren's semi-nude bust. Well if her husband is a producer it's quite acceptable.

Very bad print (even on DVD), but very good movie. A war film that focuses more on the people who suffer, instead of telling the story of those fighting the battle. It's also a movie about love, relationship, bonding between a woman and her daughter. Sophia Loren's performance is stellar. Belmondo is also very good. Young Eleonora Brown's performance gets better during the film. The last 30 minutes of the movie are poignant. It's heartbreaking to listen to Cesira apologize to Rosetta. Watch it.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on February 19th, 2006.

81/100 (***)

very sad film by vittorio de sica (famed director of "the bicycle thief.") the first two thirds of the film move slowly, but it's still very engrossing. the final third of the film is pure cinematic tragedy. sophia loren won the oscar for best performance for a lead actress in this movie, and i beleive that she dearly deserved it. prior to seeing "two women" i had no idea what a terrific actress she was. her role as the mother desperately trying to shield her daughter from the horrors of the world is one of the finest that i have ever seen. this is a truly heartbreaking and beautiful film.

***SPOILERS*** Set in 1943 war torn Italy the movie "Two Women" is about a mother and daughter leaving Rome for the , what they think, safety of the countryside and going back to their little village in the hills and mountains in the Agro Pontino area just north of Rome.

Sophia Loren in a somewhat non-glamorous role as Cesira a shop owner in the Italian capital who's estranged from her husband and is, at the time that we first meet her, having an affair with local food distributor Giovanni, Ralf Vallone. Taking care of her shy teenage daughter Rosetta, Eleanor Brown, Cesira has had enough of the almost daily and deadly bombing by the USAAF and RAF and leaves the city with her daughter by train for her home town. There's trouble almost as soon as the train leaves the city with it being derailed by an Allied air attack. Leaving the disabled train and on foot both Cesira and Rosetta make it to the village after they survive an air attack by a USAAF fighter that killed a farmer who was walking on the same road with them.

After getting to the village things are more or less peaceful, with the war just an old and bitter memory, with Cesira meeting and falling in love with the local intellectual as well as socialist young collage student Michele,Jean-Paul Belmondo, who even young Rosetta takes a strong liking to. The almost forgotten war slowly catches up with Cesira and Rosetta and the people at the small village as the Allied forces break through the German lines and reach the outskirts of Rome. It soon becomes too dangerous for the village people to stay and they start to leave and go south to the Italian capital city which is now in US/Allied hands. Before this happened a squad of German soldiers entered the town and took Michele with them as a guide through the dangerous hills and valleys of the Argo Pontino.

On their way to Rome the two women, Cesira & Rosetta, stop off at a bombed out church to get some rest and are later set upon by a group of French Colonial Moroccan troops. The Moroccans brutally beat and gang raped them leaving young Rosetta almost mute with fear and shame of what happened to her and her mother. Getting back on their way to the Italian capital Cesira & Rosetta are both picked up by a local truck driver Firindo, Renato Salvatore. Stoping off at a small town outside of Rome that night Rosetta who seemed to have completely lost her mind, since she and her mother were raped, sneaks out of the room that she sharing with Cesira and has an affair with the truck driver. This both sickened and outrages her already distraught mother. The movie ends with Cesira getting the terrible news that her lover Michele was shot and killed by the Germans as we later see both mother and daughter alone in their small room arm in arm crying and consoling each other as the movie slowly fades to black.

Sophia Loren rightfully who got an Academy Award as best actress for 1961 in the role of Cesira was both feisty as well as touching as the long suffering Italian mom. The vicious rape scene in the bombed out church of Cesira and Rosetta was not only graphic and shocking. By having this outrage committed by the liberating allied troops instead of the occupying German soldiers it showed that there's nothing good that comes out of war on either side.

A unique film about the ravages of World War II, told specifically from the point of view of an Italian woman and her young daughter.

The woman is Sophia Loren, and she won the first ever Oscar given for a foreign language performance in this film. She plays Cesira, a spitfire who is blithely indifferent to Italy's role in the war until the horrors of it hit home in deeply personal ways when she and her daughter leave bomb-addled Rome to trek across the Italian countryside to wait out the fighting. Most WWII films are told from the point of view of the men in combat or the women who wait at home patiently for them, letting their commitment to the cause be their solace. Few films are told from the point of view of women on the wrong side of the conflict (as we've been taught) who don't much care who wins or loses as long as their lives are left untouched. One would be justified in thinking that Loren's character is either selfish or naive, or both, but one would have to be inhuman not to feel compassion for what happens to her and her daughter.

Loren was known as nothing but a sex kitten at the time of this film's release, and director Vittorio De Sica uses this to his advantage. Her Cesira is a woman who's used to being alluring to men and isn't above wielding her sexuality when it might work to her advantage. But Loren goes far beyond sex kitten in this film, to something nuanced and ultimately heartbreaking.

Grade: A

"La ciociara",although it did give Sophia Loren one of her two best parts (the other being Scola's "una giornata particolare"),has undergone some reassessment;one thing for sure the neorealism was on the wane at the time,and DeSica 's best works were things of the past (so were Rosselini's).Like in France ,a new wave was rising in Italy,whose art was diametrically opposite to theirs:Fellini,Antonioni,Zurlini,Bolognini,Pasolini,et al were shaking the Italian cinema ;and although some of them -not to say all of them- began with neorealist works ("la strada" "il grido") ,now they were inventing their own aesthetic:the content took a back seat to the form("l'avventura" "la dolce vita" ).And the classic Story did not seem to matter a little bit.

DeSica's style -which was so inventive during the forties and early fifties- became here a bit academic and conventional:for instance,he uses close-ups to excess;his actors,once "neorealist" to a fault (a non-professional in " Ladri di biciclette") , sometimes seem here a bit hamming it up.And Jean-Paul Belmondo is completely miscast in his part of idealist intellectual.

There are good things though:the relationship Loren/daughter is moving and heartfelt;and the selfishness,the lack of solidarity of the refugees trying to save their dear life are impressive.Loren has great moments that make this work worth watching.

Vittorio De Sica was a major figure of the Italian Neo Realist film movement after the Second World War. His best (and most well known) films are "Bycicle thief" (1948) and "Umberto D." (1952). Later he made good films as well but movies such as "Yesterday, today and tomorrow" (1963) and "La Ciociara" (1960) own more to the acting of Sophia Loren than to the directing of Vittorio De Sica.

"La Ciociara" is based on the novel "Two women" from Alberto Moravia. The story is situated at the end of the Second World War, The Facists losing ground and the Allied forces on the march in Italy. A mother (Sophia Loren) and her 13 years old daughter (Eleonora Brown) are on the run for the violence of war (i.e. Bombing of Rome).

Sophia Loren is fabulous as the mother guarding the honor of her young daughter against wandering groups of soldiers, if necessary at the cost of her own life. She really is a tiger-mother. Three years later Luchino Visconti would use the title "Il Gattopardo" for one of his films. The same title would not have been out of place here.

Jean Paul Belmondo plays an (all too) serious teacher kind of character for which both women fall. I think this is one of the most extreme anti type casting cases I ever saw, given the playboy like characters Belmondo used to play.

The first half of the film is rather slow and made me think of "La notte di San Lorenzo" (1982, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani). The film becomes more shocking (and in my opinion better) in the last half hour, starting with the rape by a bunch of soldiers and subsequently showing the reactions of both women.

The soldiers who raped the two women were black and I have a feeling that this influenced the rating of the film negatively because some reviewers interpreted this as a racist element. The rapists being black is however not based on the fantasy of Vittorio De Sica but on the novel of Alberto Moravia. Morovia on his part based his novel on the "Marocchinate", the mass rape and killings that happened after the battle of Monte Cassino (18 May 1944). This mass rape was mainly committed by the Moroccan Goumiers, colonial troops fighting for the French Liberation (and thus Allied) army.

Definitely I think a film where it helped to have some context before watching. After the battle of Monte Cassino in WWII, some Moroccan troops under French colonial command, went on a massive rape spree in the surrounding countryside of Ciociaria, you can read about the numbers involved, but really it's beyond understanding. But to an Italian audience watching a WWII movie called La Ciociara (literally the woman from Ciociaria) I guess they would have known what was going to be happening in the movie. I was not aware of the incident and it just seemed like a bizarre and affronting denouement to the movie, too weird to invent. It turns out that once again, the truth is stranger than fiction. In Italy the victims are known as the Marocchinate, literally those given the Moroccan treatment.

The lead up to the outrage is always hinting at danger, but the movie is in fact quite sweet. It's about a lady and her daughter (Cesira and Rosetta) who return to the village of her humble origins from Rome whilst the Allies are bombing. They are both very lovely people, who meet Michele, a man in between their ages (played by Belmondo) who is an intellectual. There are some brilliant scenes for example when Cesira points out to Rosetta that Michele is a subversive, and when Rosetta asks what that means, Cesira says, "a nice man who doesn't want to work". And there she has it in a nutshell, despite barely being able to write. It occurs to me that all liberal education is really there for is to make up for natural deficits, but Cesira doesn't actually have those deficits. The movie just seemed full of natural wisdom. Although the movie shows how abject and shocking life can be, it also makes you fall in love with love, the way Cesira, Rosetta and Michele love each other is just so perfect. I also liked a movie that understood that an intellectual is just another of the pilgrims on the way to Canterbury.

Sophia Loren received the Best Actress Oscar here, the first time an Oscar had gone to a performance in a non-English language movie. Like Gillo Pontecorvo's Kapò, another Italian war movie from the same year it treads a dangerous ice by utilising formalism when depicting earth-shatteringly hideous events.