Search - The Most Beautiful Wife on DVD

A unique love tragedy in a small town in rural Sicily

Pork Chop | Lisbon, Portugal | 02/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"a"La Moglie piu bella ... The most beautiful wife", filmed by Damiano

Damiani, in 1969 and 1970 is a remarkable movie even 37 years later,

incredibly.



The cinematographical quality is excellent, from the sharpness of the

images, the quality of the dialog, and the generous wide-screen

presentation of the filming. The picture, in color, doesn't seem to

have aged, except for the vehicles shown in the streets, mainly Fiat

compacts and Alfa Romeus.



Clearly, Ornella Muti is the star of this picture, by her natural

acting ability, charisma, confidence and ability to blend into the

story, playing a peasant 15 year old girl, who's a mobster's object

of desire in rural Sicily.



Alessio Orano, with his youthful looks, yet sinister inner demons,

plays a man who decides to forcibly compel Ornella into marriage,

despite his belligerant, aggressive, arrogant, self-centered

personality.



The movie is not so much a love story, or even, a mobster story, but

a unique love tragedy, apparently based in a poor and small farm town

of perhaps 4,000 residents.



With so many movies candy-coating romance, the director chose a more

realistic approach, standing out for this reason.



The underworld presence ( organized criminal gangs) and its

associated corruption of public works contracts, influence peddling

on public officials, and manipulation of the criminal justice

system, is acknowleged in this Sicilian location.



The power of this film on spectators, is the tension and

psychological complexities that are felt, as the entire savings of a

small farmer is threatened of instant anihilation with and his

family's lives at stake as blow-back from the the mobter, should he

move forward with his complaint in the courts.



The godfather, warns the youth, Vito a soldier, against chasing

women, advising instead to focus on work and family alone. But, in

carrying out his advice, the whole plan spins out of control.



The script skillfully articulates the perils of social pressure on

one's reputation and economic ruin when one opposes evil forces of

the criminal underground. The risks of being ostracized is very

real. Similarly, the mobster is very sensitive to ridicule,

disrespect, controversy over his own marital status and fiance's

behavior, by his friends, in the organization and among the public.



As such, threats, secret oaths, violence, pistols, rival crime gangs,

the obligation of beneficiaries of corruption to give back favors in

the future, the taboo of stooling, the lack of financial resources

for residents to move out of town to escape this state of affairs, is

told.



The stakes are high, in such a small town, to the point that the

mobster enrolls several colleagues in the organization to perjure

themselves in confirming a made up version of the facts, coupled with

the ease inhiring the best attorney money can buy, which the poor

can't do.



More could have been done in the humor department, although seeing

Ornella milking a goat was unexpected.



Overall, this is a captivating work, with a young Ornella Muti

filmed at 15 years old, yet as mature and charismatic as we've seen

her in other films."