Sophia Loren Award-Winning Movie Collection - Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style, Sunflower, Vittorio D - Classic Italian Films for Movie Lovers & Film Students - Perfect for Home Theater Nights and Cinema Studies

Three films directed by Vittorio de Sica and produced by Carlo Ponti (the husband of Sophia Loren), starting the two stars of Italian cinema of the time: Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. The on-screen chemistry between the two is intoxicatingly unbelievable...the two stars acted in all three films as if they were also a couple in real life...very natural performances from both of them.The box contains three films: 1) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963); 2) Marriage Italian Style (1964); 3) Sunflower (1970)All three are equally good !!!1) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, is composed of three short films, each film telling a story of a three different women from three different social backgrounds, and three different Italian cities, all played by Sophia Loren. The first story, is about Adelina from Naples who supports her family by selling cigarettes on the black market, for which she gets a fine she is unable to pay. With time the fine grows to staggering proportions and Adelina comes up with a "brilliant" idea that will allow her to out-smart the law and jail-time...together with her unemployed husband they will have as many babies as possible...after all in Italy it is against the law to arrest pregnant woman. The second story, deals with Anna of Milan, who is married to a wealthy industrialist but is bored with her money, life and friends she has. Therefore, she embarks on a love affair with one of her newly met male friends. Their car escapade with Anna's brand new Rolls Royce through the streets of Milan and out to the country side will test the characters of both Anna and her lover. The last story, is about a high-class prostitute with a kind heart by the name of Mara who happens to live on a top floor of an old villa in Rome, and her apartment's terrace is located right across from an old couple's apartment where a young, soon to be priest is studying...this final short film features a famous sequence where Loren is performing a strip-tease. All three short films deal with such subjects like: poverty, bureaucracy, post-WW II Italy, social status, infidelity, child raising, unrequited love, etc.2. Marriage Italian Style: is more of a melodrama with some funny moments. Loren plays an illiterate prostitute called Filumena, who is as cunning as she is kind-hearted. Mastroianni plays a wealthy businessman Domenico, who one night during an air-raid by the Allies stumbles upon frightened Filumena in the bordello. The two meet again after the war by accident and begin a short love affair. The film is told through flashbacks of both Filumena and Domencio. Filuemna is hiding a secret from Domenico, which soon is revealed and threatens their relationship...there are some tear-jerking moments in the film and the acting is superb by both leading stars.3. Sunflower: is the most dramatic and heart-wrenching of the three films. It reminded me of classics like: Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Gone With the Wind (1939). The film is also an Italian/Soviet production...many of its scenes were shot in the former Soviet Union. The film tells the story of Giovanna (Loren) who after WWII searchers for her husband Antonio (Mastroianni). Her lover for her husband and desperation leads her to Soviet Union, the country her husband together with thousands of other Italian soldiers were transported to fight along the side of Nazi Germans...when she arrives in the Soviet Union in the 1950's (Stalin is already dead) she soon discovers that...the final scene in the film is not only touching, but it is one of the most heartbreaking cinematic endings I HAVE EVER WATCHED...it reminded me of my grandmother's story who went through similar life-event as the two leading characters in the film. I think Sunflower (1970) is the most underrated Italian drama in the history of European cinema. On the final note, European cinema would have been nothing without the contribution of Italian films in the 20th century...many of which have become classics or have cult following.Mastroianni died from cancer in 1996, and is out lived by Loren, who is now 81 years old.After watching the three films, I could not help but wonder if there was any real love connection or perhaps even romance between Loren and Mastroianni off the set? did the two ever really flirted with each other? after all Loren was wedded to a guy almost twice her age who was not attractive physically...and Mastroianni was known as a womanizer.