Malena ( Italian/English - 2000)

There was a movie in Tamil directed by Balumahendra starring KamalHassan (Azhiyatha Kolangal ),where he during his adolescent age used to look at Shoba with same look as Renato looks at Melena here. This is not a strange story but this would have happened to every one ,where there used to be a enigmatic woman who lives near by and people when they do not know any thing about her ,would start gossiping about her.I bet every body in our adolescent age would have had the curiousity to know about her and peep near her window.

Malena starring Monica Belluci and (Giuseppe Sulfaro),as Renato.This tells the story of a woman whose life gets spoiled because she was beautiful.Her husband after moving to world war people gossip about her.Every body in the city speaks about her and every man longs for her company.But they speak nonsense and rubbish for the fact they do not know any thing about her.Renato a teenager gets attracted towards her and follows her meticulously.He peeps through the windows of Malena and knows the real pitiable life of Malena.He develops a fantasy towards her and she remains in his dream ,through his erotic fantasies.But slowly he prays for her welfare when people gossip her being a whore.When the war ends woman of the city bring her to the streets and beat her up to prove a point .Malena leaves the town and returns after years with her husband to regain her dignity.

The movie is directed by one of my favourite director Guiseppe Tornatore ,the man who made Cinema Paradiso.Frankly speaking Malena was not so impressive for me as Cinema Paradiso .It had Monica Belluci and Renato ,that’s it .The other characters were disappointing in description .I was able to manipulate the whole movie as it had no interesting scenes apart from Renato buying the Songs which he heard in Malena’s house.

The movie is to show beauty can be a curse and the scene which ends her life in the city makes you invariably compare with the beauty which she possessed in the previous scenes. Cinematographer Lajos Koltai captures the beauty and texture of Eastern Italy which is one thing to be praised for.The one thing which I was not able to get in too much was the character of Malena !! We look through the eyes of Renato as he becomes the Narrator and we do not have an option to look from her angle of what is she and why is she.That restricts any body to reach through her character.It speaks more on the jealous and envy of the human on a thing superior than them.It speaks on the fascination of human which they find hard to reach at.But movie at a point makes a mockery at both.Malena is stunningly beautiful and silent ,but slowly her state of being makes her reachable for even the common grocery supplier which was not defended.I was confused because she makes even the top attorneys fall for her by just walking around the city ,but why does she become a cheap whore at the end.Reasons and situations vary as the movie moves by but one some of the scenes were pretty ordinary.

Malena is an mysterious beauty surrounded by normal people and things.Malena was recommended by Chriz and my brother and I had enough time to look through Renato’s eyes and enjoy the beauty of Malena which is the best thing about the movie.