{"id":2300,"date":"2010-11-26T17:16:02","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T17:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2010-11-26T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2010-11-26T17:16:02","slug":"the-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/reviews\/the-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Aka Bianco, rosso e…, Blanco, rojo y…, Une bonne planque, The White Sister
\n1972
\nOriginal running time: 96 minutes
\nItaly
\nProduced by Carlo Ponti for Compagnia Cinematografica Champion (Rome), Les Films Concordia, Columbia Film (Paris), Midega Film, Ci. Pi. Cinematografica (Madrid)
\nDistributed by CEIAD
\nDirector: Alberto Lattuada
\nStory: Tonino Guerra, Ruggero Maccari
\nScreenplay: Jaja Fiastri, Alberto Lattuada, Tonino Guerra, Ruggero Maccari
\nCinematogrpahy: Alfio Contini
\nMusic: Fred Bongusto
\nEditor: Sergio Montanari
\nArt director: Vincenzo Del Prato
\nCast: Sophia Loren (Sister Germana), Adriano Celentano (Annibale Pezzi), Fernando Rey (the manager), Juan Luis Galiardo (Guido), Giuseppe Maffioli (Doctor Arrighi), Sergio Fasanelli (Doctor Filippini), Luis Mar\u00edn (Lebanese brigadier), Pilar G\u00f3mez Ferrer (Sister Teresa), Patrizia De Clara (Sister Caterina), Valentine Nurse Martina), Tina Aumont (Ricci, the diva), Teresa Rabal (Lisa, the young nurse), Anna Carena (a patient), Bruno Scipioni (“Chiacchiera”), Enzo Cannavale (Quinto), Attilio Dottesio (a marcher), Dori Dorika (Dorotea, the cook), Adolfo Lastretti (bank robber), Gianni Magni (bank robber), Carlo Gaddi (bank robber), Bruno Biasibetti (Ottolenghi), Alessandra Mussolini (Young Sister Germana), Aldo Farina (Valenzani), Antonio Alfonso (Gigino), Enzo Curti (Attilio), Franio Curti (Pinin), Angelo Bellia (Sapigni), Guido Spadea (Amilcare), Massimiliano Filoni (Giacomino), Maria Marchi (Giacomino’s mother), Francesca Modigliani (Lucia), Carla Galletti (Gina), Bruno Cattaneo<\/p>\n

There was something of a vogue for nun movies in the early seventies, both in a historical and contemporary setting.\u00a0 Many of them leant towards the exploitative, a lot of them are utterly ridiculous and almost all of them involved their protagonists losing their clothing at regular intervals.\u00a0 As you\u2019d expect from its estimable director, Alberto Lattuada, The Sin <\/strong>is something a little bit more prestigious: although the main character is the stock figure of a nun having problems with her closeted situation, the film attempts to be a serious look at contemporary issues and the relationships between people of different beliefs (or faiths).<\/p>\n

\"Sophia<\/a>
Sophia Loren in The Sin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sister Germana (Sophia Loren), a young nun who took up holy orders after the death of her fiancee in an industrial accident, is expelled from her Libyan homeland by the new revolutionary government and posted to work in a hospital in Italy.\u00a0 She finds it to be a rather relaxed place, presided over by an extremely chilled director (Fernando Rey) and home to an eccentric roll call of patients.\u00a0 Before long, though, she’s starting to bring things to order: chucking out a weird and totally unofficial collection of mummies (!), cleaning up the operating theatre, generally stamping out any kind of fun.\u00a0 The bane of her life, though, is Annibale Pezzi (Adriano Celentano), a happy-go-lucky communist activist with a dodgy leg, who’s been a patient so long he’s virtually a member of staff.<\/p>\n

Inevitably enough, despite their ideological differences and very different approaches to life, they start developing a grudging respect for each other. As their relationship becomes more complicated, Annibale is left with no choice but to leave, using the medical knowledge he picked up at the hospital to set himself up as a kind of travelling doctor (despite his lack of any kind of qualifications).\u00a0 Germana, meanwhile, is having all kinds of second thoughts about her chosen vocation.<\/p>\n

This is a peculiar old mess of a movie.\u00a0 Part nunsploitation (although lacking nudity and violence, it still plays up to the idea of the nun as an erotic symbol), part star vehicle for Sophia Loren – who makes for one of the most unlikely nuns imaginable – and part political film, it\u2019s almost like a weird meeting between characters from, say, Elio Petri\u2019s Working Class Go To Heaven<\/strong>, The Nun\u2019s Story<\/strong>, Brittania Hospital <\/strong>and, briefly, Roma violenta <\/strong>(complete with Carlo Gaddi and Adolfo Lastretti as a pair of sallow bank robbers).\u00a0 The result is different, for sure, but not entirely successful.<\/p>\n

\"Tina<\/a>
Tina Aumont in The Sinin <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of the problem is that the filmmakers never seem to be sure what kind of story they\u2019re actually telling.\u00a0 There are comic elements, but these are peripheral, it has a message, to an extent, but the whole thing is based around a plot that seems to have been manufactured to create the maximum in melodramatic syrupiness.\u00a0 There were an estimable group of writers behind the script, but it just doesn\u2019t gel: you can almost see the separate influences of Tonino Guerra (political, esistential), Ruggero Maccari (social comedy) and Jaja Fiastri, but they seem to have been working against each other rather than in tandem.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Lattuada directs with a somewhat heavy touch.\u00a0 There are good moments and it\u2019s nicely assembled, with good cinematography and music (which recalls some of the more introspective interludes from a Morricone western score), but it feels way too heavy and ponderous for what is essentially a rather silly subject.\u00a0 I find it hard to get a handle on Lattuada, he was obviously a talented filmmaker, but his films en masse don\u2019t seem to have much of an identity, which is perhaps why he\u2019s fallen somewhat out of fashion over the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sin is a peculiar old mess of a movie. Part nunsploitation (although lacking nudity and violence, it still plays up to the idea of the nun as an erotic symbol), part star vehicle for Sophia Loren – who makes for one of the most unlikely nuns imaginable – and part political film…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[850,387,849,851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}