#778: SCOLA, Ettore: A Special Day (1977)

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SCOLA, Ettore (Italy)
A Special Day [1977]
Spine #778
Blu-ray

Italian cinema dream team Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are cast against glamorous type and deliver two of the finest performances of their careers in this moving, quietly subversive drama from Ettore Scola. Though it's set in Rome on the historic day in 1938 when Benito Mussonlini and the city first rolled out the red carpet for Adolf Hitler, the film takes place entirely in a working-class apartment building, where an unexpected friendship blossoms between a pair of people who haven't joined the festivities: a conservative housewife and mother tending to her domestic duties and a liberal radio broadcaster awaiting deportation. Scola paints an exquisite portrait in muted tones, a story of two individuals helpless in the face of Fascism's rise.

107 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Italian
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writers


Written by Ettore Scola and Ruggero Maccari.
Scola was 46 when he directed A Special Day.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Deborah Young.

Commentary

None.

Short film

Human Voice (2014), starring Loren and directed by Edoardo Ponti.

Interviews

With Scola and Loren.

Two 1977 episodes

Of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Loren and actor Mastrioianni.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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