Director: Vittorio De Sica
Year Released: 1970
Rating: 1.5
Newlyweds Giovanna (Sophia Loren) and Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) are separated when Antonio is sent to the Russian Front during World War II - years pass and she doesn't hear from him but is convinced he's alive, so she heads to Mother Russia to find him. The chemistry between Loren and Mastroianni works well in the beginning, but once they're apart the movie heads down hard-to-fathom territory as not only is Loren able to find Antonio using only a photograph (!), he's also implausibly alive after being deserted in an icy wilderness (hypothermia would have most likely killed him, or he would have been shot), dragged to safety by a young Russian woman apparently searching the fields for a dying boyfriend and permitted to marry the woman who saved him (furthermore, his new wife claims he has memory loss, yet he's able to remember everything perfectly). I'm not sure if De Sica intended it or not, but this also feels vaguely pro-Soviet Union, which is very disconcerting.
