Half a century of love A more accurate translation of the title of this film is “Half a century of love”, because all five stories take place in the first half of the twentieth century. And they're all about love. A young girl from a bourgeois family falls in love with a simple musician, but her relatives believe that she should marry a man of her own circle. The best, to my taste, is the episode of Pietro Germi: Antonio and Carmela live in a small town in Abruzzo. They start a family and are expecting a child. But the First World War begins. Antonio is called to the front, but no one doubts that he will return a hero for the birthday of his first child.
In the third part, Alberto Sordi plays the role of a womanizer-fascist who is so passionate about the brilliance of the nightlife of Rome that he can not distinguish long-term love from short-term passion. In the fourth episode, the Allies bomb Naples, but the explosions will not prevent the birth of first love. In the fifth episode, the classic love triangle is resolved in an unusual way.
Italy had just come to its senses after the war, and it was too early to spend big budgets on movies. Therefore, the scenery in this film is very poor (especially in the Roman episode). And stories are trivial. Franco Interlenghi emphasizes his naive look, Alberto Sordi jokes, actresses are quietly beautiful.
They say there was also a sixth episode, but it did not miss the censorship.
5 out of 10