Lemon (1969)
This avant-garde film by Hollis Frampton is an elaborate, eight minute practical joke, yet somehow this was released by the Criterion Collection.
Marriage Italian Style (1964)
Prostitute Filomena (Sophia Loren) fakes an illness and convinces her long time paramour Domenico (Marcello Mastroianni) to marry her on her “deathbed.” After her recovery, she convinces him to stay married for the sake of their child.
Loren is a wonderful comic performer and possesses a rare ability to turn a comic scene into a poignant one by batting an eye. She’s always sexy because she understood sex appeal was more about what wasn’t seen.
Despite rarely making English language films, Mastroianni managed to achieve considerable success in America. Through his work with Frederico Fellini, his carefully crafted image of sophistication and detachment has become a continental European stereotype.
Director Vittoria de Sica ushered in neorealism with The Bicycle Thief (1948), but this proves he also possessed a healthy sense of absurdist humor.
In the context of the current debate about competing definitions of marriage, this delightful film helps us understand how marriage has evolved.