Malèna
Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore .
Written by: Giuseppe Tornatore, Luciano Vincenzoni (story) .
Actors: Monica Bellucci, Daniele Arena, Giovanni Litrico.
Released: 2000.
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence.
Length: 105 min.
Romance.

Received two 2001 Oscar nominations, including Best Cinematography. The movie also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Brief outline (no spoilers):
The movie sets in small Sicilian coastal town in the beginning of World War 2 when Mussolini’s declaration of war against England and France. Malèna (Monica Bellucci) is the wife of a soldier missing in action. She is the most beautiful woman in town, and all the men are having lustful thoughts about her. When she is walking the streets all the men stares and turns their head. She is topic on everybody’s lips and gossips flows about her and what she does. The story is about a 13 years old boy that also has a crush on Malèna.

Personal opinions
Malèna is obviously cursed by her beauty, and it causes a lot of problem for her to deal with that. She is probably aware that she is a beautiful woman, but she just have to try to ignore the people as best as she can. The boy sees himself as the protector of Malèna against all the gossip and unjust.

Good
The movie has a bit of flow and it develops in parallel with the developments of the war. It has an interesting ending. The background of Sicily makes it esthetically beautiful to watch. You get to see plenty of the beautiful body of Monica Bellucci.

Bad
The nudity is the biggest selling point of this movie. Cut those scenes away and nobody would have noticed this movie. There is also a lot of scenes of a Malèna walking around. We get that everybody looks at her, but it gets underlined to the obvious. And all of those shots of her (great) ass and (great) body the audience is forced into the role of a peeper, just like everybody in the town that are portraied as bad people.

Bottom Line
This is a movie for perverts about a pervert. The most thing that pull up are those explicit scenes with Bellucci.
Rating: 5/10 (where 10 is the best).