Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Malena

 

Malena is a movie from 2000 starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It is mostly a coming-of-age story mixed with a period piece. It is set in Italy during World War II. It is centered on a local teenager's lusting (kind of creepily) after the daughter of a local teacher and wife to a soldier off fighting in the war named Malena. She is played by Monica Belluci, who most Americans likely know from the second and third Matrix movies. She is the subject of town gossip from both the men and the women, and the only one who knows the truth about her life is the teenager watching her every move (when he is not fantasizing about her). The story takes a few turns, some rather dark, but it is very well told, well acted and has a satisfying ending.

I have the single disc blu ray Korean import of the film, which shows the uncut version not released in the US. I have not seen the edited version of the movie so I am not sure what scenes were cut, although it is not hard to guess which ones. There is one where a topless Bellucci (who was 35 when the movie came out) was kissing the 15-year-old Sulfaro (during a fantasy sequence) that was almost certainly cut or edited for the US release. There is a lot of nudity in the film, but it does not seem like it was just done for the sake of showing nudity. The Korean disc is region-free, so it will play on US blu-ray players. The movie has English and Korean subtitles (the audio is only in Italian). The bonus material, though (a making of feature as well as some interviews), only has Korean subtitles, so unless you can read Korean or understand Italian, those probably will not be worth going through.