Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Starring Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Giuffrè, Agostino Salvietti and Lino Mattera
Stories about three very different women and the men they attract. Adelina sells black-market cigarettes in Naples, is married to the unemployed Carmine, and faces a jail sentence. She can avoid it as long as she's pregnant. Several years and seven children later, Carmine is exhausted, so jail looks inescapable as does her contempt for Carmine. In Milan, Anna drives a Rolls, is bored, and picks up a writer. She talks dreamily of running off with him until he dents her car; that gets her emotional attention. Mara, a Roman call girl, turns the head of a naive seminarian, prompting a run-in with his granny and a vow of abstinence. Mara's fizzy lover from Bologna grows impatient.
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Reviews
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★★★★ review by belledejour on Letterboxd
A 60s Italian comedy starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren, directed by Vittorio De Sica. How could one not fall in love with Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow?
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★★★½ review by TajLV on Letterboxd
#30 of 100 in my Top 100 Directors Challenge
I'm almost sure I have seen parts of this before, but not the entire film in a single sitting. In fact, I really only know Italian director Vittorio De Sica from his acclaimed "Bicycle Thieves," so it was certainly a treat to see this romantic triptych starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren, arguably one of the world's most beloved film couples, each playing three different roles.
In the first tale, "Adeline of Naples," Loren plays title character Adelina Sbaratti, a convicted hawker of contraband cigarettes who is unable to pay her fine. To keep from being put behind bars, she gets pregnant by her day-laborer husband Carmine. As long as she's with child or nursing an infant under six months old, the police can't arrest and confine her. So begins a series of seven pregnancies and births to keep her free, till Carmine is finally too weak and tired to give her baby #8. But even as she is marched off to a cell, the Naples community pulls together to pay her fine and get her a pardon.
The second tale, "Anna of Milan," has Loren as bored aristocrat Anna Molteni, who is having a tryst with a writer named Renzo (Mastroianni) while her husband is out of the country. They take off in her Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III convertible en route to her private villa outside Milan, but the conversation they have along the way is anything but romantic. In fact, it is almost adversarial, betraying their widely differing ideas about money, social status, material possessions and enjoyment of life. When an accident occurs on a country road, it's a catalyst for showing their true colors.
The third tale is called "Mara of Rome." Again, Loren has the title role as a high-priced call girl, while Mastroianni is her infatuated customer, the oil tycoon Augusto Rusconi from Bologna. One of Mara's neighbors is an elderly woman with a grandson named Umberto (Gianni Ridolfi), who is studying for the priesthood but having second thoughts about devoting his life to celibacy. Mara helps set him straight, but there's a cost in the form of a holy vow that puts poor Rusconi to the test.
Together, the trio of comedies make a fun little visit to Italy circa 1963. They won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film along with the Samuel Goldwyn Award at the Golden Globes. Mastroianni picked up a BAFTA for Best Foreign Actor, while Loren received a Bambi Award for Best Actress - International.
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★★★★ review by michelle on Letterboxd
A very enjoyable Italian comedy! Sophia Loren is not only stunning but such a great performer.
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★★★★ review by Robert Beksinski on Letterboxd
Another surprise from De Sica who is beginning to prove to me his talents as a comedic director. Which also showcases his range from being famous for his neo-realist dramas such as Umberto D and The Bicycle Thieves to creating sometimes nonsensical but always entertaining comedies like Miracle in Milan and this one. I actually thought Sophia Loren was better in this film than in her Oscar winning role in the other De Sica directed film Two Women. She performs a trifecta creating 3 different and individual characters all in the same film. All 3 feel as if a different actress played each of them, Loren showcased some chameleon like abilities. Marcello Mastroianni was absolutely hilarious in the 3rd segment and his "blue ball" scenario provided the perfect recurring joke. I'm not sure which one is my favorite but I certainly really enjoyed the film as a whole. I rate it a 8/10.
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★★★★ review by Mark Cunliffe on Letterboxd
Despite playing three very different characters in Vittorio de Sica’s 1963 comic anthology Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, you have to admit that Loren looks her tiger eyes temptress best in each role; there’s Adelina, with the utterly natural, sultry and sensual beauty of a working class Neapolitan street trader, and Anna, the chic and elegant, Doir-clad wife of a rich industrialist, and lastly there’s Mara, a high-class Roman call girl whose sun kissed beauty ensures she easily captures the attention and hearts of all men, including her young neighbour who is training to be a priest!
Be advised, if your watching this on your plasma screen…it may melt!
See my review at The Geek Show
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