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Special Day, A (Une Journee Particuliere) 

Year: 1977
Country: Italy
Director: Ettore Scola
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren
Synopsis: A depressed gay man and a lonely married woman make a brief connection on a historic day in Italy in this film featuring two of Italy's legendary actors.
Quick review: Back in 1977 the few gay films that made it to the screen mostly treated homosexuality for laughs, such as "The Ritz" or "Norman, Is that You?" But there was the beginnings of films that treated same-sex love seriously, such as "Midnight Express." This film stands out for a couple of reasons. First, you have two of the giants of Italian actors in Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren playing in a gay movie. It's more than 30 years later and still some of Hollywood's top actors fear playing gay. Second, while there is scant attention paid to the gay man's love life, they don't really shy away from it. It just doesn't fit in this film. The setting is 1938 and Adolf Hitler is visiting Italy for the first time as the leader of the Nazis and Germany. Nearly the entire city of Rome has assembled in the streets for a military parade, but in this one housing complex, three people stay behind. There is the lonely housewife and mother of six who has too much work to do; the local gossip who prefers to listen on the radio; and a former radio announcer who has just lost his job because his employers believe he's gay. Through chance, the housewife and gay man meet and spend most of the day together. The fact that he's gay is kept from the audience for much of the film as the director was obviously trying to build some sexual tension. The version I screened was an English dubbed film, so I don't know how much of the original film was cut for American audiences. Still, there are some trademark Italian concepts, including long scenes of mundane life, which fits well here. Overall, this is a historically important film for the way it treated homosexuality and the fact two of the leading actors in a country were willing to be part of a gay film at that moment in time. Even the climax of the film, which may offend some gay men works because Mastroianni's indifferent performance.
 

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