Problems arise for Antonio Magnano when he is unable to consummate his marriage to the beautiful Barbara Puglisi and his virility is called into question. Despite the fact that he loves his beautiful wife and they have otherwise been happily married for a year, his problem becomes a source of contention for all concerned.
Le bel Antonio, Bell' Antonio, Le Bel Antonio, Bel Antonio, El bello Antonio, A szép Antonio, El bell Antonio, O Belo Antônio, Красавчик Антонио, Μπελ Αντόνιο, 英俊的安东尼奥, Kaunis Antonio
Italy
France
USA
France
Italy
USA
One would imagine an Italian film about erectile dysfunction would be a comedy. But, in director Mauro Bolognini and screenwriter Pier Paolo Pasolini's capable hands, male potency is symbolic and used to satirize and condemn the hypocrisy of the ruling elite and the church. It was so effective that in the end, it left me sad and angry.
Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) is the son of a wealthy and influential family, recently returned from home to his hometown in Catania, Sicily. His family's arranged for his marriage to Barbara (Claudia Cardinale) from another wealthy family to consolidate their power, in the age-old tradition of royalty and nobility. His handsomeness (code for virility and sexual prowess) is admired by all. But his…
A supremely interesting movie. This is a film about the hidden burdens of the expectations of society and religion. Not to mention the hypocritical double standards of both. Antonio may be beautiful, but he obviously has severe issues with guilt which are compounded by his Catholic upbringing as well as the pressures of his good looks and Italian machismo. It's honestly a heartbreaking movie, in part because a lot of the subjects touched upon in this are still considered taboo and shameful. Men who aren't obsessed with sex are still considered lesser men, never mind speaking about impotence and its causes.
Where as other films go a little more abstract, Il Bell'Antonio goes for the most straight forward telling the…
Ending spoilers in the last two paragraphs.
In the Sicily of Il bell'Antonio, men are pressured into sex by the society around them constantly, regardless of the marital status or actual availability of their chosen partners — virility is the same thing as masculinity, so the more often it's in evidence, the better. Single women, on the other hand, are shamed for any sexual activity, and married women who have sex outside of their marriage are again shamed, but their cuckolded husbands get it even worse, humiliated and mocked before their friends and neighbors for what is assumed to be an inadequate masculinity: no real man would allow his wife to step out on him and, anyway, what real man's…
Brief Synopsis: Handsome Marcello marries Gorgeous Claudia but is unable to consummate the marriage, causing all sorts of familial and religious consternation in the Sicilian city they inhabit.
Verdict: Here's a tragicomic - with the emphasis on 'tragi' - dissection of Italian machismo, patriarchal society and the Catholic church, and wielding the sharpened scalpel is director Mauro Bolognini and co-screenwriter Pier Paolo Pasolini (in the year before his own directorial debut with Accattone). The film is a bitter social satire played with a poker face; there's no 'nudge nudge, wink wink' humour here, which a lesser production might have fallen into the trap of. There is a depth to this picture and a lot of its excellence is down to…
Imagine being the most handsome and talented actor in all of Italy and when you’re handed a bunch of scripts you just say ‘let’s do the one about erectile dysfunction’.
Hats off to you Marcello, that takes real balls.
That one girl who was obsessed with his eyelashes. Same bitch same.
I did not expect to come out of this heartbroken.
The more Marcello Mastroianni movies I see, the more I realize that the roles he did for Fellini are the least interesting.
Antonio (played by Marcello Mastroianni) is very handsome man for which every woman falls. When he's back from Roma to his native local town, his father (Pierre Brasseur) arranged him a marriage with a young woman, Barbara (Claudia Cardinale) from a very rich and renowned family. However, the marriage hasn't been consummated...
The film is the result of a collaboration between Mauro Bolognini (director) and Pier Pablo Pasolini (scriptwriter) and questions subjects such as sexuality, virility and hypocrisy.
It displays very well the behaviours and the way of thinking of the characters towards sexuality, the pressure of society in which virility is the pride of the family.
There are many wonderful shots, for instance I love the sequence when Barbara…
This is the first film I've watched in Criterion Channel's Pier Paolo Pasolini programming (love his name, love the alliteration), and though he did not direct it, and instead was the screenwriter, I think I'm already starting to get a sense of the thematic preoccupations of the controversial and idiosyncratic figure. Handsome Antonio is a good satire of Catholic morality and its double standards and the ridiculous conceptions of sex Catholic institutions brain rot their believers with (including yours truly 😔), but it is also a satirical Italian sex comedy of the early 60s, meaning it's got some stiff (heh) competition in terms of films attempting to make similar points. It's no Divorce Italian Style, but Handsome Antonio does succinctly…
marcello mastroianni plays a man known for his beauty (his beauty truly is out of this world) whose inability to consummate his marriage becomes the main focal point of the town’s discussion. marcello arrives back to his hometown and the people are instantly gushing over him, like how long and pretty his eyelashes are (it’s true!). he draws women in, basically doing nothing to do so. his masculinity comes in question when it is found that he is impotent. the once idealized man becomes the laughing stock of the town.
he loves his wife and it’s shown beautifully in the scene where claudia cardinale is on a swing and marcello kisses her hands and legs each time she swings by…
