Sunflower (Italian: I girasoli) is a 1970 romantic war tragedy film directed by Vittorio De Sica. An international co-production of Italy, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, the film was shot in the Soviet Union; some scenes were filmed near Moscow, while others near Poltava, a regional center in Ukraine.
Contents
Plot
"A woman born for love. A man born to love her. A timeless moment in a world gone mad."
Giovanna (Sophia Loren) and Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) marry to delay Antonio's deployment during World War II. After that buys them twelve days of happiness, they try another scheme, in which Antonio pretends to be mentally ill. Finally, Antonio is sent to the Russian Front. When the war is over, Antonio does not return and is listed as missing in action. Despite the odds, Giovanna is convinced her true love has survived the war and is still in the Soviet Union. Determined, she journeys there to find him.
In the Soviet Union, Giovanna visits the sunflower fields, where there is supposedly one flower for each fallen Italian soldier, and where the Germans forced the Italians to dig their own mass graves. Eventually, Giovanna finds Antonio, but by now he has started a second family with a woman who saved his life, and they have one daughter. Childless, having been faithful to her husband, Giovanna returns to Italy, heartbroken, but unwilling to disrupt Antonio's new life. Some years later, Antonio returns to Giovanna, asking her to come back with him to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Giovanna has tried to move on with her own life, moving out of their first home together and into her own apartment. She works in a factory and is living with a man with whom she has a baby boy. Antonio visits her and tries to explain his new life, how war changes a man, how safe he felt with this new woman after years of death. Unwilling to ruin Antonio's daughter's or her own little son's life, Giovanna refuses to leave Italy. As they part, Antonio gives her a fur, which he had promised years before that he'd bring back for her. The lovers lock eyes as Antonio's train takes him away from Giovanna, and from Italy, forever.
Cast
Sophia Loren as Giovanna
Marcello Mastroianni as Antonio
Lyudmila Savelyeva as Masha (Maria)
Galina Andreyeva as Valentina, Soviet official
Anna Carena as Antonio's mother
Germano Longo as Ettore
Nadezhda Cherednichenko as Woman in sunflower fields
Glauco Onorato as Returning soldier
Silvano Tranquilli as Italian worker in Russia
Marisa Traversi as Prostitute
Gunars Cilinskis as Russian Ministry Official
Carlo Ponti, Jr. as Giovanna's baby
Pippo Starnazza as Italian official
Dino Peretti
Giorgio Basso
Release
Sunflower was released on Saint Joseph's Day, 19 March 1970, in 5 key cities in Italy. It expanded to an additional 13 cities at Easter. It was the first Italian film to be dubbed and screened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Reception
In its first three months on release in Italy, the film earned theatrical rentals of $1 million. Despite reaching number one in the United States in its seventh week of release, the film performed disappointingly in the United States earning rentals of $1,038,000.
Soundtrack
Track listing
01. Love Theme from "Sunflower" (2:26)
02. Masha's Theme (1:54)
03. Giovanna (1:54)
04. The Search (4:20)
05. Love in the Sand (Love Theme from "Sunflower") (3:00)
06. New Home in Moscow (1:20)
07. Two Girls ("Masha's Theme and Love Theme from "Sunflower") (2:07)
08. The Retreat (5:10)
09. The Invitation (2:04)
10. Masha Finds Antonio (Masha's Theme) (3:35)
11. The Parting in Milan (Love Theme From "Sunflower") (3:23)
Awards
David di Donatello: Best Actress (Sophia Loren)
Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Score
Novelization
Shortly before the US release of the film, Popular Library released an English language novelization of the screenplay by noted science fiction writer Thomas M. Disch under the pseudonym “Victor Hastings.”