Why so much hype?

Instant Favorite.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is not Malèna's fault she is so beautiful, nor is it her fault that she happens to find herself living in a society at a very specific point in history which happened to place a heavy emphasis on the appearance and internal makeup of a person: Italian; white; patriot; Catholic, etc. This is a film about beauty as much as it is beautiful people - certainly by the end of the film, all sorts of different individuals have sandwiched into their minds preconceptions on our eponymous herald, but a large chunk of the film is about what really transpired over a period of around four and a half years. It is also a film about behaviour - behaviour and outlooks at a time and in a place when behaviour and outlooks are scrutinised to within the inch. It is difficult for many of the men who live in the small Sicilian town in 1939 wherein "Malèna" is set to balance their lust for the eponymous woman with the honour they are supposed to feel towards their own spouses and the Catholic faith. Where director Giuseppe Tornatore toys with things in this respect lies in his placing of a young boy at the very epicentre of the film. At twelve years of age, Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) is too young for politics; religion and wives, and because he is so young he will never hook up with Malèna in the first place. Irrespective, he is still on the outside looking in like everybody else anyway. Amidst the ugliness of war; fascism; a volatile homestead situation and seclusion from a group of other boys, Monica Bellucci's Malèna character is both a visual tonic for our Renato as well as a key into an alternate reality where they are together; happy and blissfully ignorant of all the pain and misery which engulfs both of their worlds. But because the film takes place so long ago, there are no modern quick-fixes to relieve the cupid's arrow - having spent an afternoon spying on Malèna at her house, Renato has a pretty good idea of what music she likes to listen to, and must purchase it at the local music store if he wants to be reminded of her. The only problem is, he doesn't know what it is called, obviously, and must embarrass himself by singing it to the clerk in the vain hope he will recognise it. The film is emboldened by that sense of the nostalgic and of the romantic in this regard.Tornatore depicts the fascination Renato comes to possess of Malèna, the bulwark of the film, in such a way that we genuinely feel that the boy has come to feel a fondness for her that is authentic. We are already aware of just how out of favour Renato is with other boys in the town of his age, who bully him and pick on him. Their own fondness for Malèna is more superficial; they are not shy of crudely expressing their lust for her as she walks past them. We do not sense that they have the ability, or even the creativity, to visualise themselves in a motion-picture with her. In a film that is the antithesis to something like an "American Pie" sequel, or the ugly younger sibling to any of those films in the form of "Superbad", this is to be applauded. If you want to cover this sort of coming-of-age material, and give it a sprinkling of situational comedy, "Malèna" is how to do it.

What an absolute delight to the senses. The melancholy music by Ennio Morricone, the 1940s scenery of a small Sicilian town, the amazing beauty and dignified demeanor of Monica Bellucci, the unflinching portrait of small-town gossip and jealousy - all combine to make a magnificent story with moments of incredible humor, sadness, passion and redemption. I drank in every minute of it. Highly recommended

Just watched Malèna again, last time maybe 10 years ago, at that time, I was just addicted to beauty of Monica Bellucci. In Chinese, it is translated to " the beautiful legend of Sicilia ", at last, it is not beautiful but fierce humanities. Beauty is doomed to loneliness and indescribable, the root of evil, sin, lust and purity paradoxically? That is destroyed by the violence and silence from the masses. Gossip and jealousy drive people to be mad. Women self-suggest a beautiful woman must have defect on moral as a silly compensation because they envy the beauty from Malèna they could not possess, but the men, their possessiveness and the repression of reality also drive them to self-suggest , they thought Malèna a lust whore to relief or release their greedy because they could not touch her actually. Boy's sexual fantasy seems quite authentic as we are always doing, we are imagining we did everything with powerful heroism at all times, the sad reality is that we are dispassionate onlookers for the tragedy. Who can tell me why the young boys love maturing woman but they would love Lolita when they get old?

I bet the director would say this film was about 'requited love' or 'a young boy's ascent into manhood.' I would describe it as 'A kind of collective madness afflicting a small Italian town during the latter stages of WWII'. I mean, this woman can't even walk down the street without people from both sexes staring at her and following her every move as if she was some kind of Goddess. Yes, she's pretty. But having that kind of effect on ALL the residents? So that they'd just stop what they were doing and act completely goofy? Wasn't there any gay men around then? What's even worse, she seems completely oblivious to it. Despite having hundreds of pairs of eyes on her, she never once looks left or right, acknowledging them at all. Besides, beauty is only skin deep. On the rare occasions she does speak, she doesn't seem the sharpest tool in the drawer. Taking all factors into consideration, perhaps the wolves who lust after her could (whisper it) do better?These events are witnessed through the eyes of a 12 year old, who despite all the attention lavished on her, declares himself as her greatest fan. And when he discovers she's lost her husband in the war, he declares to have her when he 'comes of age' in four years... and that means, punishing her detractors and following her everywhere, even to the extent of spying on her at night through a peephole at her house. Don't these kid's parents realise he's missing every evening? He keeps up this charade while she sleeps around, before finally becoming a prostitute in the service of the Germans. Meanwhile, he has his own adventures, including an accusation of being possessed by the devil which some nuns 'cure' him of. I'm not sure about that, but there's definitely SOMETHING wrong with him. And the rest of the province, come to think of it.Well acted and very funny in places, it's still hard to get round the initial idea... that Malena is so beautiful there is nothing else to think or talk about when she's around. This is such a far-fetched ideal it did affect my enjoyment of the film, to the extent I wanted to confront the characters and tell them to get a life. And how can someone be so blind as to not notice that you're being stalked and harassed by pretty much everyone? Either that, or she's the best ignorer ever. Regardless, there is pleasure to be derived from the film, as long as you're willing to accept the ridiculous behaviour of all concerned. Those crazy Italians... 6/10