Two Cents Worth of Hope

Neo-realist comedy-drama about a young guy without a job or prospects trying to woo a girl. I often find when I watch Italian films which are not genre-oriented, I find myself struggling a bit. This one was no different, as I didn't connect with it too much and it did appear to me to ultimately boil down to scenes of Italians shouting at each other an awful lot. Yeah, I'm better off sticking to pastaland offerings featuring leather-clad killers, violent men in small cars and master criminals in gimp suits.

Castellani let it rip with this one! The movie's a riot — but a thoroughly enjoyable one.

Carmela, the daughter of a well-to-do village fireworks manufacturer, relentlessly pursues Antonio, the returned soldier son, now unemployed, of a less than honest poor village woman.

Finally, of course love triumphs... but it's a rocky road to get there! Slowly Antonio is wooed — and when he is, he's resolute — but then they face the reluctance of both sets of parents to their match — and Antonio's sister's indiscretion with another wealthy landowner doesn't help.

I was exhausted by the end with all the shrieking, weeping, chastising and emotional swinging.

The movie is beautifully filmed. Some of the editing is a little rough. The direction improves as the movie goes along. Nino Rota gives us a taste of how his musical gift will develop in subsequent years.

Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952) Director: Renato Castellani Watched: 6/22/18 Rating: 5/10

With local talent, Filmed at Mount Vesuvius; Great sitcom antics, Poverty against true love, True Italian village life.

Rallying ending, But no one was "stark naked". Distant characters, Lax voice-over narration, More frenzied yelling than laughs.

Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems (the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format), the second stanza a response to the first. Traditionally, each is a love letter and it requires two authors, but sometimes a poet takes on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to this film? #Somonka #PoemReview #Italian #PalmedOr

Is love the only ingredient needed to enable a young couple to be married? Through most of this motion picture the answer seems to be no, as Antonio and Carmela are in love and yet the odds are against them getting married. This is the simple plot line which focuses in on the two very well developed characters and their fight to be accepted together. The strong personality and overwhelming free spirit of Carmela, excellently portrayed by Maria Fiore has to be one of the most interesting female characters in film history. The story starts out with Antonio having served time as a soldier and returning home to his financially challenged mother and sisters. Almost at once Carmela is on the scene flirting with Antonio. His main concern, though, is securing a job. The rest of the film switches back and forth between Antonio and Carmela and his trials and tribulations with both his short term employment ventures and the problems arising with young love. Their situation isn't helped with Carmela's brother and father being against their proposed marriage. Village life is very well explored in this movie that has a very broad appeal. Mack Sennett felt that a fast pace was the key ingredient to a good movie and Two Pennyworth of Hope moves along at the speed of light. The VCR timer and other sources give this a running time of 95 minutes. Technically speaking the movie isn't in b&w as a red film stock was used as a source for this VHS video version. The white subtitles need to be encased in black as about 10% are impossible to read.

Hold on fast, because it's a fast train and it won't stop! Action. Is furious here, although there is no drama, no deaths, no violence, just a tremendous lot of arguing. There is a love story like a flower blossoming forth in the middle of a very wild meadow, but the love story is merged into the deluge of village life gushing forth like a lava stream from an outbreak of Vesuvius. The film is a panorama, every acting person (mostly amateurs) contributes to the sparkling display of emotional outbursts of temperament with wills and interests consistently contending, but as the love is sincere in spite of impossible conditions, it will inevitably prevail in the end, but at the cost of considerable ordeals of settlements actually touching the risqué zone.