A Special Day (Criterion Collection)

Two of Italy's greatest film stars, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, are united in this special film about two special people. The day is May 8, 1939, the day of a huge rally celebrating Hitler's visit to Rome which underscored the infamous alliance between the Nazis and Mussolini's fascist regime. But this serves only as a background to the story on which the film focuses: A somewhat different alliance transpiring this same day. In this brief encounter, an intimate drama unfolds between two unlikely people, Antonietta (Sophia Loren), a worn out and weary housewife, and Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni), a former radio announcer. An accidental meeting brings them together for almost two hours of comic and touching confidences, arguments and self-searching.