This is a very difficult film to review and even react to. The premise of the story is either fundamentally flawed, or irreparably dated, and for want of being able to determine which of the two, it is difficult to respond accordingly. Were the review focused on the first half alone, the film would warrant an 8/10 but in its entirety I was unable to give it anything above an already generous 5/10.

The direction is beautiful and meditated, allowing for the essence of a short moment in time to be captured. The acting is strong and the characters exude life and loneliness, happiness and despair. It is interesting (during the first half at least) to see Mastroianni and Loren taking on roles beyond their usual remit. The narrative, unfortunately, is implausible.

The first half: The true focus is Sophia Loren's character Antonietta. Lonely, reduced to wife and mother, her male chauvinist husband, member of the National Fascist Party, belittles and exploits her. The day is May 8th 1938 and the majority of the Italians in Rome flock to the rally in honour of Mussolini (Il Duce) meeting Hitler (Der Führer). Once everyone has left the tenement where Antonietta and Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni) live their absolutely different lives the silence slowly invades. The Caretaker sets her radio to full volume, turning it out to face the courtyard, and the radio coverage of the rally booms through the emptiness, echoing through the silence.

The quietly paced and gentle film follows Antonietta in the beginning of her daily routine to keep the house in order and introduces us to the elegant neighbour, Gabriele, who is alone at home writing addresses on a pile of envelopes, unsure what he is doing, his gestures betray a sense of finishing something. The two are brought together when Antonietta's pet bird escapes and lands on Gabriele’s wind sill. The fly-on-the-wall filming and direction allow the viewer to witness how an improbable relationship sparks between these two isolated and dislocated characters. Gabriele desperately clutches on to humour to cover his sadness whilst Antionetta is deeply entangled in the routines of her daily existence.

The film is full of clashes: Antionetta and Gabriele; the interior lives of the main characters and the blaring of the rally; the Caretaker. The photography is unintrusive and at times painterly in its juxtaposition of realities through windows. Mastroianni's character magnetically exudes melancholy. Loren is a very beautiful tired housewife.

The unfortunate slip (contains spoilers): The main problem in the storyline is Gabriele sleeping with Antionetta. Would a persecuted homosexual in Italy in 1938 be used to consummating heterosexual relations? Possibly, in which case it may be a justified part of the narrative. But I find it very hard to believe. Especially when the characters in question are an intellectual persecuted by a fascist regime, driven to be suicidal, who is just about to be arrested for his sexuality and a desperate and lonely housewife who holds fascist views for want of any alternative education. Not the most plausible of settings for such an act of compassion/loneliness by Gabriele. It seems at best implausible and at worst offensive. According to the film it seems that a homosexual played by Mastroianni would jump at the chance of a quick fling with a dull and misguided housewife incarnated by Sophia Loren.

Admittedly it is more complex than this. Gabriele behaves in an unconventional and clown-like way with Antionetta, maybe because he thinks she knows that he is homosexual, maybe because he has lost all attachment to what is imposed as normal. The frustrated Antionetta does suddenly become quite insistent in her lonely need for physical consolation. And both are starved of affection. But surely there were so many more ways of finding a catharsis for the growing tension. Maybe it is all a metaphor for how much Fascism can violate and manipulate you. And yet, maybe it is just unnecessary, implausible and disappointing.

The film is a classic, some (debateable as it is) say it is Mastroianni's best performance, and the poetic and paused pace of the filming and direction do all make it worth seeing and judging for oneself.