Divorce Italian Style
1961 · Directed by Pietro Germi
Original language: Italian
- comedy
- crime
The story
Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.
What it’s like
Sun-bleached Sicilian light, dusty piazzas and crumbling baroque facades, all shot with the crisp, slightly theatrical composition of early-1960s Italian cinema. Germi's camera favours wide frames that let a sweltering village breathe, with Marcello Mastroianni's mock-tragic face often held centre frame against lined stone walls and sun-baked courtyards. The score bounces with brassy, playful themes that undercut the darker turns, and the sound of cicadas and street chatter fills the quieter stretches. The vibe is sardonic, lightly cynical comedy with a bitter edge: a satire of patriarchal pride, class vanity and a legal system that traps people in loveless marriages. Its pacing is brisk and episodic, with sharp escalations and reversals, and its characters are small-town figures whose schemes grow more ridiculous as they go. Violence is present as a plotted threat and a few abrupt moments of menace, but it stays largely offstage and is framed as absurd rather than graphic; sexual content is suggestive and mild. This suits a wry, grown-up comedy night, anyone who enjoys dark satire with a sunny surface, and viewers curious about Italian cinema's sharpest social humour.
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