Sunflower

Giovanna and Antonio marry in haste to delay his deployment. The trick fails and he is sent to the Russian front. The war ends, he does not come back and is presumed dead. Giovanna refuses to accept it, travels to the Soviet Union and finds him: alive, with a Russian woman and their daughter, in a life he has built. Both of them choose not to disturb what they now have. Antonio comes once more, leaves the fur he had promised her and goes for good. Vittorio De Sica directed. Sophia Loren plays Giovanna and Marcello Mastroianni plays Antonio. Giuseppe Rotunno photographed it and Henry Mancini wrote the score. It was co-produced by Italy, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. It opened on 19 March 1970 and became the first Italian film dubbed and screened at Radio City Music Hall in New York. It took 1 million dollars in Italian rentals in its first three months and stopped at 1,038,000 dollars in the United States. Sophia Loren won the David di Donatello for Best Actress. Henry Mancini was nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar. Who it is for: viewers who like melodrama about what war costs away from the front, and the Loren and Mastroianni pairing. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a resolution. The film names no villain and ends where everyone has lost.