A Special Day

Dozing off while reading an Italian fascist comic book, her Rome apartment building nearly vacant because everyone’s gone to the parade for Adolph Hitler, Sophia Loren as housewife Antoineta is wakened by the family mynah bird, and meets neighbor Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni), in director Ettore Scola’s A Special Day, 1977.

After nearly six minutes of chilling newsreel footage detailing Hitler’s 1938 visit to Mussolini in Rome, and Nazi flags being unfurled in cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis’ desaturated color, we meet Sophia Loren as housewife Antoinieta, John Vernon her husband, in an elaborate single shot, in director Ettore Scola’s A Special Day, 1977, also starring Marcello Mastroianni.

In cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis’ widely-praised desaturated color, in 1938 Rome, with coverage of Hitler’s visit to Rome playing on the radio, troubled bachelor Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni) surprises neighbor housewife Antoineta (Sophia Loren), abandoning his excuse quickly, after they first met that same morning, in director Ettore Scola’s A Special Day, 1977.