Suddenly, Love Becomes Lust… Innocence becomes shame… As two women are trapped by violent passion and unforgettable terror!
Overview
A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.0/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.91/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
Vittorio De Sica
Production
Société Générale de Cinématographie (S.G.C.), C. C. Champion, Les Films Marceau-Cocinor, Titanus
Cast
Sophia Loren, Eleonora Brown, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raf Vallone, Carlo Ninchi, Andrea Checchi, Pupella Maggio, Emma Baron, Antonella Della Porta, Bruna Cealti, Luciano Pigozzi, Franco Balducci, Mario Frera, Curt Lowens, Luciana Cortellesi, Tony Calio, Remo Galavotti, Elsa Mancini, Giuseppina Ruggeri, Luigi Terribile
Curator Review
Verdict
A potent neorealist wartime drama anchored by Sophia Loren’s fierce, bruised performance. It’s emotionally devastating and historically resonant, though its final stretch is controversial and may alienate some viewers.
Best for
fans of Italian neorealism
viewers seeking intense wartime melodrama
Sophia Loren admirers
people interested in mother-daughter survival stories
cinephiles comfortable with difficult, historically fraught material
Skip if
you want a clean or uplifting war film
you’re sensitive to sexual violence on screen
you prefer tightly polished plotting over raw emotional force
you’re looking for a film without dated racial representation
Overview
Two Women is one of those war films that feels less interested in battlefield spectacle than in the private wreckage war leaves behind. De Sica keeps the scale intimate: a mother trying to protect her daughter, a country collapsing around them, and ordinary survival becoming its own form of heroism. The film’s neorealist texture gives it a bruised immediacy that still lands hard today.
Worth noting
Sophia Loren is the engine here, giving a performance that is both forceful and deeply vulnerable. The film’s first half builds an almost unbearable sense of dread through displacement, hunger, and fear, and then it turns into something even harsher. That last section is famously difficult, and for many viewers it will be the point where the film’s moral and emotional power collides with its most troubling choices.
Bottom line
Even with that caveat, it remains a major work of postwar Italian cinema: compassionate, unsparing, and unforgettable in its depiction of maternal love under siege. It’s not an easy recommendation, but it is a serious one.
Top Letterboxd reviews
robby (4.5★) · 215 likes
Se sono costretta a leggere l'ennesima recensione scritta da statunitensi che non hanno nessuna conoscenza sulla Liberazione mi strappo i bulbi oculari
Sam (3.5★) · 180 likes
Two Women is an emotional rollercoaster that doesn’t shy away from the harsh reality of war and showcases this short yet extremely powerful time in this woman’s life. At times it was difficult to sit thought, but it is so worth it. A truly beautiful film that is very short in length because it shouldn’t be long, allowing it to capture what it needs to perfectly in about 100 minutes. It may not have. the strongest screenplay or direction, but… more Two Women is an emotional rollercoaster that doesn’t shy away from the harsh reality of war and showcases this short yet extremely powerful time in this woman’s life. At times it was difficult to sit thought, but it is so worth it. A truly beautiful film that is very short in length because it shouldn’t be long, allowing it to capture what it needs to perfectly in about 100 minutes. It may not have. the strongest screenplay or direction, but… more
shookone (3.5★) · 108 likes
great character design by Vittorio De Sica, as usual. Sophia Loren kills it. the finale is at the same time intense and climaxing, yet unfortunately suffers of a good portion of racism en passant.
📀 Cammmalot 📀 (3★) · 97 likes
”Who are you angry at signora?”“Everyone”
This film from Vittorio De Sica about a mother and daughter in war torn Italy is all about Sophia Loren’s Oscar winning performance. The print I watched was an english dub of horrendous quality, and yet her abilities still leapt from the screen and made this movie engaging. I also went into it completely cold, so yes I was unprepared for and shocked by those last 20 minutes.
”Rotten thieving bastards do you know what you have done?”
Cinematic Time Capsule - 1960 Ranked
harrylime66 (5★) · 78 likes
“La Ciociara” is about Cesira, a young woman who lives in Rome during the War, but she was born in Ciociaria, the mountainous area of Central Italy… this is the title of Alberto Moravia’s novel and this is the original title of the film in Italy. But in the rest of the world, the title is “Two Women” because Cesira decides to leave Rome under the bombings to return home and protect her daughter, Rosetta, a 11-year-old girl who is… more “La Ciociara” is about Cesira, a young woman who lives in Rome during the War, but she was born in Ciociaria, the mountainous area of Central Italy… this is the title of Alberto Moravia’s novel and this is the original title of the film in Italy. But in the rest of the world, the title is “Two Women” because Cesira decides to leave Rome under the bombings to return home and protect her daughter, Rosetta, a 11-year-old girl who is… more
1970 · Drama, History · 1h 35m · R · Curator 6.3/10 (17.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A tragic wartime story of family, privilege, and the slow encroachment of persecution.