Before
Leo, Clooney, and
Pitt were Hollywood's leading men, there was
Marcello Mastorianni. Before
Sofia Vergara and
Penelope Cruz were making men swoon and showing off their best assets, there was
Sofia Loren. In 1963, master Italian director
Vittorio De Sica placed two of the world's biggest actors together in an anthology film that showcases that love never dies. In
Ieri, Oggi, Dommani, translated to
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, De Sica made three short films based around the themes of love and had Mastorianni and Loren as his leads. Broken up into three parts, Part 1 - Yesterday, Part 2 - Today, Part 3 - Tomorrow, the actors play different characters in different eras of the story but it is compiled like three totally different films. In Part 1, they play cash strapped lovers during poverty stricken Italy at the height of World War 2 and are trying to make ends meat to support their growing family. In Part 2, They play modern lovers in 1960's high society Milan as they show the glitz and glamor of expensive taste and love. In Part 3, it becomes almost a precursor to
Pretty Woman, as it is set in the future when Mastroianni plays a wealthy tycoon in Rome and falls in love with a high end call girl. With each three parts playing on the politics, religious, and sexual aspects of love, in the month we celebrate Valentine's Day, this may be a film to get a hold of.
