It's really an excellent film, but the only flaw to me is the Natalia character's unbearable performance. She's overacting so much and she made the girl so mentally challenged that it annoyed me occasionally during the film.
She's not beautiful at all, at least not enough to make the man love her that deep. All the innocent smiles and pretentious gestures.....Such a pity for Visconti!
What made the universe made me.
I had a similar reaction to the performance of Maria Schell. I kept thinking as I viewed the film that this is really bad - but I attributed my reaction to the fact that I had recently viewed (available on Netflix Instant View) the documentary "My Sister Maria". This the story told by her brother, Maximilian Schell, of the mental and financial deterioration in old age of Maria. My reaction to the documentary was negative as to the motivations of Maximilian. He seems very resentful of having to fulfill the brotherly duty of caring for his sister in her decrepit old age.
But now thanks to vampirock_x I have a better perspective on the poor performance.
You don't make any sense. What has the mental deterioration "in old age of Maria" to do with her role in this movie?
She was wonderful. If she was overacting a little it was Visconti's job as a director to tone it down.
"But now thanks to vampirock_x I have a better perspective on the poor performance."
FOOL!
Maria Schell's character is supposed to be irritating and somewhat of a hysteric. However, the aforementioned shouldn't dismiss the fact that this is also a young girl who has lived the greater portion of her life on a leash and in isolation; she's clearly been deprived of a normal social life, and therefore a great number of the experiences we witness Natalia encountering (during flashback and present) are obviously alien to her.
In my opinion, Maria Schell played the character the way she was supposed to play it: naive, youthful, slightly innocent and, at times, annoying.
"I hope I never get so old I get religious." Ingmar Bergman
>"I hope I never get so old I get religious." Ingmar Bergman
I always knew there was a reason I couldn't warm to Bergman's films. Pretentious bores, imo. What the heck is wrong with religion? If it gives people a sense of peace why ridicule that? A-hole.
If you are forced into religion like Bergman was and your brain is capable of critical thinking then I'm not sure how much peace it would really give to you dumba$$
shareI strongly disagree, Maria Schell was incredible on delivering the role of natalia, i even though she was italian, usually foreigner actors on italian movies are dubed, but she wasn't, she learnt all her lines and she's most certainly one of the most beautiful women of all time, she had such a glow in her eyes, that expressed right away that air of innocence.
shareJust watched the movie and i loved it, mainly because of Marcello's amazing performance. Like the OP, i didnt like MS performance alot, its like she had only 2 expressions throughout the movie.
" wants me to tell him something pretty... "
God, I couldn't stand her. I think part of it was the character, part of it was acting. Natalia's character felt so artificial and fake to me.
share