Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.
Divorce Italian Style is a landmark of Italian comedy — a wickedly sharp satire on Sicilian machismo, Catholic conservatism, and the absurdity of the honor-killing loophole in Italian law. Marcello Mastroianni delivers one of his most celebrated comic performances, earning him an Oscar nomination, perfectly calibrating pomposity and desperation. The plot is inventively constructed, building its dark premise with surgical comic precision and escalating ironically. Novelty is very high: the film essentially invented the 'commedia all'italiana' genre of biting social satire and remains wholly distinctive in tone and conception. The ending is a genuine masterstroke — a final ironic twist that crystallizes the entire film's satirical argument in a single image. Cinematography, while competent and well-composed in the neorealist-inflected style of the era, is the least exceptional element — functional and charming rather than visually transformative, keeping it at a solid but not extraordinary level.