Synopsis
Agnese has many men who woo her and live with her cousin Cesira, who has the opposite problem with men and wishes she would also have men woo her.
The Sign of Venus
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Alternative Titles
Le Signe de Vénus, El signo de Venus, Im Zeichen der Venus, Знакът на Венера, Знак Венери, Знак Венеры, علامت ونوس, Vénusz jegyében, O Signo de Vênus, Venüs'ün İşareti, תחת סימן ונוס, Pod znakiem Wenus
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Italy
Releases by Country
Italy
12 Mar 1955
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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It starts like a light fun movie, ends up being a modern dark comedy, hopeless and with no happy ending. Brilliant. Who hasn’t been a “Cesira” once in his life?
The cast is made up of Sophia Loren, Vittorio de Sica, Alberto Sordi, Franca Valeri, Tina Pica, Peppino De Filippo ... it’s like the Avengers of the italian golden age
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If I had a sign of Venus period like Cesira, I’d definitely still find a way to screw it up lol. Speaking of, how did no one question her cutting these dudes’ hair?
This was also a fun movie but not quite as comical as Scandal of Sorrento. I found myself sympathizing the most with Cesira, her being quite the romantic juxtaposed with her cousin, Sophia Loren’s character, who I found extremely childish.
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The screenplay that eventually became The Sign of Venus was originally titled The Fortune Teller, and was a narrow story about Cesira (Franca Valeri) and her romantic struggles and aspirations; Luigi Comencini was slated to direct. While that original narrative is still an element of the film, Titanus, the studio behind the production, reshaped it entirely in order to conform to their primary goal at the time: cramming as many familiar faces into their films as possible in order to ensure big profits. As a result of this shift, Comencini left the project in frustration, the list of credited writers ballooned to eight (including Valeri), and a hot cousin was created for Cesira: Agnese, played by knockout rising star Sophia…
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men are trash, specially italian men. do not be fooled by how mesmerizing their faces are.
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Franca Valeri stars in this comedy as a young woman overshadowed by her more popular cousin (Sophia Loren) who tries to find love of her own after receiving a favourable fortune. Vittorio de Sica, Raf Vallone and Alberto Sordi make up the excellent supporting cast.
I found the film a bit of a mixed bag, with Valeri very likeable and sympathetic, although the men were shown to be quite sleazy and mercenary, and some of the attitudes feel incredibly outdated. There were parts that worked well, like the central relationship between the cousins, and funny moments like Sordi’s memorable turn as a crook, but the lead character’s treatment leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste, especially thanks to a rather downbeat ending.
There seems to be too many story threads for any one to properly be developed, and so while it worked in places the film is quite hit or miss.
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Quando il cinema italiano era in cima al mondo.
Pieno di attori strepitosi, di registi giganteschi e
di sceneggiatori mitici.
Qui non manca nulla: la storia è semplice ma paradigmatica,
la recitazione ai massimi livelli, lo humor inesausto e
intelligente, l'amarezza(perché la grande commedia all'italiana
faceva ridere ma con il groppo in gola) onnipresente. -
My Sophia Loren Retrospective continues with The Sign of Venus (Il Segno de Venere), an intriguing bitter-romance from 1955. The irony in that description marks the film as a whole, which is a contrast of romantic ideals and the mundane reality of courtship and marriage in Italy, which retained a highly traditionalistic nature.
[Mild Spoilers]
The story begins in the household of a traditional non-traditional family of sorts: An older woman (Tina Pica), her brother-in-law (Virgilio Riento) and his daughter Agnese (Loren) live in an apartment in Rome. A niece, Cesira (Franca Valeri), has come from Milan to join them. In the expertly crafted opening scenes, the bitter unmarried aunt warns Cesira not to get her cousin “in trouble” by…
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It's interesting Netflix acquired two classic Loren films and it was this one and Scandal in Sorrento. Neither bad choices per say, but you'd think they'd be able to get some of her bigger and iconic roles to reel more generations in. Hell I first Yesterday Today and Tomorrow on Netflix. But ah well. This was a fun movie. I liked it had a lot of small comedy nuances with the actor's body languages and whatnot. It's just a fun romp of a love quadrangle. (Square? I love square a thing? Anyway...)
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Sophia Loren is a goddess, and everything she's in is a blessing to our dark and terrible world.
Kidding aside, this movie wasn't terrible. Definitely a 50's film, and it has a lot of sexist tropes and misogynistic jokes that would be expected of the time, but honestly, it does have a bit of an arc about independent women, and working and finding happiness yourself, so if you dig a little bit into the movie, the tropes aren't as bad as they originally appear.
There is some overacting, it's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's a pretty fun movie to sit through at least once.