Dir.: Ettore Scola; Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon; Italy/France 1977, 110 min.
Ettore Scola (1931-2016) showed us the tragic side of life in Italy in a rather romanticised way, in common with his close friend Federico Fellini. A Special Day is one of his most realist films and, for once, he does not soften his tone.
The story takes place in Rome 1938 where Italy had joined ranks with Germany and everyone was eager to to watch Hitler meet Mussolini. Loren’s Antonietta decides to stay at home – she is not a big fan of the Duce, unlike her husband (Vernon) and the rest of her family, who are out to celebrate the great day.
Antonietta’s neighbour Gabriele (Mastroianni), an insecure homosexual, is an opponent of the fascist regime, and about to be shipped off to Sardinia. The two get to talk to each other, and Antonietta, unaware of Gabriel’s sexual orientation, starts flirting with him and soon they’re in bed together despite their low mood
In the background Hitler’s idiosyncratic tones ring out as he address to the crowd (his Nuremberg speech of 1934). So there can be no happy ending: in the evening, Gabriele is deported, and Antonietta’s husband returns with the intention of making good his promise to the Duce, to produce children for the country now under Fascism.
A Special Day is a low-key but memorable affair, and the maudlin atmosphere is caught by the bleached out images of legendary cinematographer Pasqualini de Santis (Death in Venice, L’Argent). Scola directs with great sensitivity: not so much political cinema, but a parable of the coming together of two outsiders who meet just for a few moments of happiness, before both embark on a bleak future. A chamber piece full of heart-breaking detail, in its approach strangely close to Käutner’s Romanze in Moll, which was ironically produced in Nazi Germany shortly before the end of the war, and was furiously attacked by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. AS
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