Ieri, oggi e domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow). 1964. Italy/France. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Screenplay by Eduardo De Filippo, Alberto Moravia, Cesare Zavattini. With Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Armando Trovajoli, Pasquale Cennamo. In Italian; English subtitles. 4K digital restoration by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation. 133 min.
Oh for the days when actors played multiple roles, whether Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets, Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, or Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in this Oscar-winning comedy about the love lives of three women in three different Italian cities: the perpetually pregnant Adelina of Naples, the adulterous Anna of Milan, and the tart-with-a-heart Mara of Rome. A commercial hit that helped revive De Sica’s career (while disappointing most critics), the film has its roots in the bawdy, plebian humor of Neapolitan burlesque; Loren’s famous striptease for a howling, sex-starved Mastroianni would be affectionately parodied by the aging couple some 30 years later in Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter.