Der Zauber von Malèna

Ein Film über eine Frau, die mit ihrer Schönheit die ganze Stadt zum Schweigen gebracht hat. Der Zauber von Malèna ist Tornatores Studie von menschlichen Charakteren, in welcher der Neid, die Lust und die Heuchelei der Erwachsenen sowie die Träume und der Illusionsverlust derer, die noch nicht erwachsen sind, im Vordergrund stehen. Der Film ist schlau und strahlt vor allem am Anfang eine gewisse Wärme aus. Umso überraschender ist sein dramatischer Teil, den ich nicht anders als düster und voller Dreck beschreiben kann. Es macht keinen Sinn, auf die Schönheit von Monica Bellucci näher einzugehen, weil sie auch ein Blinder bemerken würde. Ich werde also die Regie von Tornatore und die präzise Musik von Morricone loben, die dem ganzen Film eine richtig saftige italienische Stimmung verleiht. Vier und ein Stück. (28.08.2010)

If anyone else made this film, I would probably given it a full rating. But this was not made by "anyone", but by Tornatore himself. And I simply expect more from him than "just" an excellent film in all aspects. (29.04.2005)

Malena captures the viewer's heart with its cunning and tenderness, which it serves piece by piece in breathtaking moments. The cinematography is surprisingly top-notch and the rural setting is tailor-made for the eccentric and beautiful titular character, convincingly played by Monica Bellucci, as always. The plot doesn't offer much, but the overall impact is so strong that you feel like you're eighty years old, lying on your deathbed, projecting your whole life piece by piece in your head with a melancholic mood and tears in your eyes. The legendary Ennio Morricone also deserves great deal of credit on this, showcasing a composition very similar to, for example, Once Upon a Time in America, which had a similarly crushing ending. (31.08.2008)

Malena is undoubtedly valuable study material for all voyeurs, but it fails as a treatise on the moral transgressions of “respectable” people. Together with the entire population of a small town, Tornatore spends a good hour drooling over Bellucci’s breasts, which is disingenuously excused by taking on the point of view of a boy with raging hormones and, furthermore, degraded with farcical scenes from home. Like young Renato, however, the director only immerses himself in the beauty of the title character, but does nothing in her defence and offers no arguments that would support what we subconsciously suspect – that Malena was pushed into her role as a whore by the people around her. Though believable in light of the different perception of single and taken women in Sicily, the epilogue, which is empathetic toward Malena, is only forcibly tacked on to the film. The sudden change of attitude toward the protagonist, who has not been allowed a single defensive counterpoint throughout the film, is as hypocritical of the director as the change in the behaviour of the locals. In fact, it would be very lenient to describe Malena as American Pie filtered through the lens of nostalgia. The latter film, though comparatively lewd, at least didn’t suffer from such narrative repetitiveness (watching Malena on the street, watching Malena in her private space, masturbating...and again from the top). Perhaps I made a mistake by watching the director's cut first, but I find it inappropriate to in any way compare it to the much more colourful Amarcord, of which I am definitely not a passionate defender. 50% (17.08.2012)