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Movies / On DVD / Maléna
Maléna

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Maléna (2000)

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Reviews Counted:75

Fresh:41

Rotten:34

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: Malena ends up objectifying the character of the movie's title. Also, the young boy's emotional investment with Malena is never convincing, as she doesn't feel like a three-dimensional person.

Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: With MALÉNA, Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore spins a romantic coming-of-age yarn about love, loss, and courage. Set in 1941 in a tiny village in Sicily, the film focuses on a group of... With MALÉNA, Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore spins a romantic coming-of-age yarn about love, loss, and courage. Set in 1941 in a tiny village in Sicily, the film focuses on a group of 13-year-old boys who fall madly in love with Maléna (Monica Bellucci), the wife of a local soldier. One of the boys, Renato Amoroso (Giuseppe Sulfaro), a dreamer who yearns for freedom from his war-bound village, revels in the exquisite beauty of the enchanting newcomer. He becomes her shadow, following her through the cobble stone streets and spying on her most intimate moments, overwhelmed with romantic longing for the first time. Maléna has a magical spellbinding effect on the male villagers; her presence inspires fantasy and escape from their daily lives. But the women of the village, hardened by war, are quick to judge the nubile outsider. Maléna becomes the focus of desire and seething jealousy in the town and she is eventually forced to face the female villagers in a bittersweet climax. Reminiscent of Federico Fellini's nostalgic masterpiece AMARCORD, native Sicilian Tornatore revisits the dusty village streets of his childhood where adolescent boys learn about sex, desire, and ultimately, love. Like Tornatore's critically acclaimed CINEMA PARADISO, he bathes the film in the sun-drenched light of his homeland, giving it a dreamy, earthy sensuality and a poetic spirit. Bellucci is a delicious revelation, the camera lingers seductively on her bewitching beauty. Inspired by the story MA L'AMORE NO... by Luciano Vincenzoni. [More]

Starring: Monica Bellucci, Daniele Arena, Giovanna Litrico, Gianluca Guarrera

Starring: Monica Bellucci, Daniele Arena, Giovanna Litrico, Gianluca Guarrera, Michel Bramanti, Giuseppe Sulfaro

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore
Producer: Carlo Bernasconi, Harvey Weinstein
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Studio: Miramax Films

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Maléna

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
12/15/03
Alexander Walker
Alexander Walker
This is London
N/R

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Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
12/15/03
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

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Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
N/R

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Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

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Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/16/01
George Perry
George Perry
BBC
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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
03/16/01
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For those of us who love Cinema Paradiso, the news that its Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore and his musical soulmate Ennio Morricone were getting back together to do another coming-of-age film, Malena, gave us tantalizing hope. Malena fa

Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | comment Comment
02/02/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Las Vegas CityLife

Tornatore's Malena is to adolescence what his Cinema Paradiso was to childhood, a lyrical if sentimental fable about the perils of gowing up and the power of the imagination.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/25/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A fully-fleshed out portrait, swirled in sweetness and nostalgia.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

La historia trata en realidad también de Italia y la pérdida de inocencia, de los costumbrismos y elementos regionales...

Full Review Source: Cinenganos | comment Comment
07/25/04
Alex Ramirez
Alex Ramirez
Cinenganos
N/R

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Full Review Source: Critical Eye | comment Comment
01/24/04
Mark Freeman
Mark Freeman
Critical Eye

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Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/20/03
Susan Tavernetti
Susan Tavernetti
Palo Alto Weekly

With Fellini and Leoni gone, who now stands as Italy's greatest living filmmaker? ... The correct answer has to be Giuseppe Tornatore.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/08/02
Ron Wells
Ron Wells
Film Threat
N/R

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Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
N/R

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Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer
N/R

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Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
03/24/02
Boston Phoenix
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Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
03/22/02
Globe and Mail
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/22/01
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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