Two Women is a 1957 Italian-language novel written by Alberto Moravia chronicling the struggle that a young mother faces while trying to protect her daughter from the horrors of World War II. Being a story that showed compassion to the people of a country on the side of Nazi Germany, while also being forthright on the truly ugly circumstances and consequences that erupted during and after the war was complete, the story was popular enough to eventually be adapted into a 1960 film under the same title. Trying to survive in Rome during the Second World War, widowed shopkeeper and mother, Cesira (played by Sophia Loren) does everything in her power to shield her young daughter, Rosetta (played by Eleonora Brown) from the horrific nature of the world that is literally bombarding them on a daily basis. After having enough of living in constant fear, Cesira decides to leave Rome with her daughter and travel to Ciociaria, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy where it is much safer to live in and less likely to put Rosetta in harms way. Upon arriving and reuniting with family, Cesira gets attached to young Communist sympathizer Michele (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) who eventually starts to become a somewhat father figure to Rosetta, but he is eventually captured by German soldiers and never seen again. Although the war is seemingly over and both mother and daughter are returning to their home, neither truly feels they are much safer, and after a harrowing incident leaves both mother, and especially daughter, scarred beyond repair, what hope is there for them to return to normal life even though the dust has settled. Two Women garnered a lot of critical acclaim, mainly from Sophia Loren’s performance as the lead, which managed to get her the Academy Award for Best Actress (being only one of two women to ever do so for a Foreign Language film). As a stand-alone movie, it provides for a relatively straightforward narrative that is mostly held up by a stellar lead performance and some uncomfortably honest truths about the time period.

A lot of the story was inspired by the real-life experiences of Alberto Moravia during World War II and talked about several flawed elements that occurred within Italy during that specific time period. Since both the book and film came out a decade apart from said dark period of time, the story’s focus on the perspective of the Italian population during and after the war had concluded was surprising considering that showcasing anything from the enemy’s side during the war could be pretty shocking, especially for back then. What this film highlights are not only how most of the populace is either ignorant to the true horrors or just so brainwashed by their fascist regime and leader that they don’t know any better, but also that even those that fought on the Allied Forces side weren’t the pure good guys always either. The film and novel also bring up the Marocchinate, which was a horrific mass rape situation involving the Moroccan Goumiers, who were colonial troops of the French Expeditionary Corps (or FEC), in which they mostly targeted civilian women and girls (but also men and boys) and committed acts of sexual assault across the rural areas of Southern Lazio. It’s a truly vile, disgusting act that becomes even more horrific knowing that it came from a branch of the Allied Forces, and the film makes it quite clear that it doesn’t have sympathy for any of those who fought in the war, regardless of which side. What can be a little confusing at first is that no one fighting on the war front is painted in a positive light, rather just shows the consequences that came after the fighting had stopped. The film, and therefore the novel as well, does have a very brief narrative that doesn’t have a lot to work with as the main structure and brief synopsis given is really the only stuff that happens in the film, so it does suffer slightly due to its minimal plot and its message-driven focus being more prominent than stating anything that new, but it does get a bit of leeway for the time as it was released in a period where this could be seen as new and shocking. The director, Vittorio De Sica, is known for his neorealist style of filmmaking, so that gritty, down-to-earth and brutal atmosphere as well as his exploration of the poor and working class, does really match this story and tone and makes it feel more honest than if it were delivered in a more Hollywood-like approach.

Easily the biggest critical praise the film got was the performance by Sophia Loren. While she had already become a relatively known and liked name by this time thanks to her work in Paramount films like The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, and It Started in Naples, it was this film that arguably shock up her career and pushed it to new levels. While most of her roles highlighted her fun, carefree, but fiery and determined spirit, this film portrays a put-upon desperate mother whose spit-fire attitude is all used in an effort to keep her daughter safe. Elements of her usual performances are utilized like her spark and even her sex appeal, but it doesn’t overshadow what is otherwise a very grounded and believable role. Even with the fact that she does both the Italian and the English dub for her voice, the dubbing doesn’t distract from the great facial and physical acting she puts into the part. Even when it feels at times like she’s going over-the-top, it all feels effective and right in this kind of film and it does keep your attention throughout. The relationship between her and her daughter is nice and touching, and it provides for a nice change of pace from your typical ‘’war is bad’’ narrative as it’s through the perspective of two outsiders trying to survive given the circumstances. Both are very strong together, and even Eleonora Brown does a nice job switching from the young hopeful girl in the beginning to the scarred and emotionally distant girl at the end of the film. Sadly, a lot of the other characters in the film aren’t particularly memorable or strong but are at least saddled with decent actors to make it work just enough. The supposed main love interest in Michele mainly just comes across as a pompous, moody snobby jerk who looks down on others who don’t follow his ideology, so there’s very little sympathy for the character when something bad happens to him (being a Communist sympathizer doesn’t help things either).

Italy is a location that’s rich in culture, and while its not demonstrated very much in this film, the vibe, attitude of some of the people and the reactions some have for and against the Fascist regime does add a nice unique touch. The film very nicely captures the dirty, uncertain nature of the time period through the use of its camera work, lighting, and even black and white filter. The lack of color does make everything look more retro and older (even though at the time of the film’s release, World War II had only ended fifteen years ago), but even the way the film is composed and scored makes it feel like a classic black and white film that incorporates a lot of old tricks to make it feel a little scarier. Elements like deeply lit environments with only specks of light to emphasize certain things almost giving of a spotlight effect, close-ups on people that only show their eyes, shots that hold of expanding shots, its aspect like this that don’t need to be there and can be a little odd to adjust to, but it feels like it helps more than takes away from things. Even most of the musical choices done by composer Armando Trovajoli feel very striking and prominent when it’s used, but arguably the most memorable scene in the film is when there’s no music (a specific shot when the music just stops in silence is a little terrifying).

Two Women portrays a strong story of two women (one young, one old) surviving through one of the darkest times of human history and how very few people got out of it without scars either on the battlefield, or on the home front. Any tale about the horrors of war can be easily overplayed as it’s a specific genre that originally started as a flip on propaganda, then as a warning tool against the very notion of the act, and now has become a staple for critically-acclaimed movies, but here it’s still balanced out by containing what is needed when making these stories work, a human centre that grounds the project and gets people to truly empathizes with the situation. It’s hard to say that this is a great film as it doesn’t show too much that isn’t already expected from this kind of film and due to the minimal narrative and side characters, it feels like a pretty small-scale movie, but most of the directing components, the visuals and a strong performance from Sophia Loren makes it a decently watchable flick.

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