As the sad-eyed stunner (think Sherilyn Fenn by way of Elizabeth Taylor) wafts through town, you half expect milk bottles to start spurting, á la THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT. They also ogle her in the town square and on the streets in fact, the whole town does nothing but ogle Malena, to judge by what may be the slightly exaggerated memory of the adult Renato, who narrates. Castelcuto, Sicily, 1940: Twelve-year-old Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) wants to be one of the big kids, whose principal pastime seems to be sitting on a seawall ogling Malena Scordia (Monica Bellucci), the married daughter of their Latin teacher whose husband is off fighting the war. Though the story is undeniably familiar, the specifics have universal appeal.
SUMMER OF ’42, Italian style: Giuseppe Tornatore (CINEMA PARADISO) returns to the well of his Sicilian childhood in this wartime coming-of-age tale.
