Indiscretion of an American Wife

1953 "This Longing ... This Yearning ... This Wanting ..."
6.2| 1h3m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 02 April 1953 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?

Genre

Drama, Romance

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Director

Vittorio De Sica

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

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Indiscretion of an American Wife Audience Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.
PimpinAinttEasy A very intense love story with two yearning characters. JENNIFER JONES is absolutely gorgeous as a straight laced and noble American woman who enters into an affair with an Italian man (played by MONTGOMERY CLIFT). The film takes place entirely at a train station with the two lovers going back and forth in their commitment towards each other even as they stave off red tape.The love story is interspersed with slice of life scenes at the station. - both comedic and heart breaking. I think the film would have been better in the hands of a more conventional American filmmaker. But even then, a really nice watch mainly due to some intense acting and the chemistry between the two leads.
Mr. Smith Whoever wrote that this movie has an Adam and Eve biblical subtext is delirious and are on to something that IS NOT THERE, except in their own mind perhaps. The only reason I continued to watch this film is to make sure it was as bad as I thought it was from the beginning. Jennifer Jones seems to emit no other expressions except pursing her face as if she's about to give birth - it gets old fast and so does her lack of ability to act. Montgomery Clift has his moments, but fails to convince me he has any remote Italian bone in his body, except his attempt to speak Italian isn't a half-bad effort. Montgomery Clift's character is more like a "wife beater"-wearing overbearing American. And Jennifer Jones is air-headed, fake and pretentious. The lack of development and believable character portrayal makes any personal investment in these characters impossible. You really end up wanting this movie to be over and done with, wishing the two lovers never got involved in the first place. You find it hard to believe either would be attracted to the other. Clift's character slaps Jennnifer Jones', and then somehow she's supposed to be excited to see him when he comes back for her? In such a short time she's gone from one extreme to another in her desires for him. This makes absolutely no sense to me, since all she seems to do is try to get away from him and make excuses to get out of his sight in the from the beginning. Everything not adding up and the poor level of over and under acting makes this movie utterly ridiculous. There is nothing romantic about this movie. Its nauseating. The trains are nice though.
st-shot Between his two classic works The Bicycle Thief and Umberto D. Vittorio DeSica and GWTW producer David Selznick got together to make this turgid melodrama that chugs along sluggishly the entire ride. Neo-Realist Master De Sica working with big Hollywood stars made for an unorthodox pairing and the results are disastrous.American Mary Forbes (Jennifer Jones) has a brief passionate affair with young handsome Giovanni Darvi (Montgomery Clift) while visiting Italy. She attempts to break it off but he remains persistent and she weakens amid the chaotic atmosphere of the Rome train station where they have come to exchange bittersweet goodbyes.This truncated 63 minute version of a longer film is all the proof one needs to see what an abysmal undertaking it is. De Sica who had the magic touch of perfectly casting leads with amateur actors errs in a big way by miscasting an American Method as a Latin charmer. The introspective Monty Clift is downright embarrassing as he exhibits little passion and a bad accent that makes you want to cringe. Vapid beauty Jennifer Jones is also a bad coupling as she roams the station key lit with a pained expression, incapable of stretching beyond screen queen. The cinematography is uninspired and the setting itself utilized poorly as De Sica has the same extras scurrying about like ants racing for trains from beginning to end. And with nearly a third of the film excised the editing suffers immeasurably. Even the one shot match cuts are uneven as it jumps from the expressive Clift to the blank beauty of Jones. The laughable climax of this steam less melodrama adds insult to injury as the lovers are treated like recalcitrant teens. However, it matters little since Stazione Termini never gets on track from the outset.
walther_von_wartburg This film will not appeal to everyone, but even with the ravages executed by Selznick on the American cut, Stazione Termini (Selznick's U.S. version: Indiscretion of an American Housewife) remains a powerful film for those who can appreciate it.To be sure, there are faults, especially unfortunate in light of De Sica's credentials. Most striking are that Montgomery Clift as American-Italian is a spectacular error, not so much in casting, as in characterization (American expat would have worked); far too much English comes from the mouths of early-1950s Romans and other Italians; and the American housewife is perhaps overly oblivious to the italianità around her. Otherwise, mostly spot on, at least in the full version.Jennifer Jones, beyond radiant in her prime-of-life womanhood, exudes a sensuality that both contrasts strikingly with her 1950s-prim exterior and celebrates the troubled woman within: proper well-brought-up ladies can have passions, too, a marriage ceremony is no guarantor that all will be well 'til death do them part, and she, like so many before her and after, struggles when smoldering embers flare and she senses that the 'groove' of her comfortable, uneventful marriage may actually be 'rut'.As would be expected of De Sica, his rendition of the setting -- the newly rebuilt Stazione Termini itself, trains, travelers -- is so accurate as to pass for a recording, and protagonists as well as the concentrically-involved supporting cast embed within it void of staging, with total plausibility.The arrest scene and its aftermath also verges on documentary in its genuinity. The strict proprieties of post-WWII Rome -- for some Romans very genuine, for others hypocritical sham even then -- may seem contrived to a young American or British viewer today, but the inevitable tension was very real at the time, and De Sica presents its effects honestly, and with éclat.Give Stazione Termini a chance. Enter the time and place. De Sica managed to do a fine job of it, in spite of Selznick's ill-advised meddling, and he deserves far more more credit than he's normally given for this effort. So does Jennifer Jones, who is magnificent here.