I guess that the film of De Sica is very little in common with the excellent novel of Moravia on which it's based. In a novel one can immensely enjoy the detailed depictions of situations and reflections of practical and obstinate but very good-hearted and sharp-minded Cesira. In the film the narration is very chaotic and many situations or characters are treated in not a very profound way. Loren seems too glossy for a simple rude countrywoman and sometimes her performance seems quite stiff (the most convincing only in the sequence of waiting for her daughter who had gone to the dancing with Florindo). Such important character as Michele Festa was absolutely mistreated. In film he's only ridiculous with his clumsy wooing of Cesira. Indeed Michele in book is a kind of new formation intellectual that was moulded under the pressure of fascist regime but had acquired spontaneous but well-conscious anti-fascism. He's a gloomy reserved young man with the hidden tempests inside, outsider among the countrymen and his relatives, sometimes bursting into tantrums but with a gift of persuasion and imposing. You should have heard his powerful speech about "the corpses who imagine that they are alive" which is unfortunately much cut in film. And by the way he absolutely wasn't interested in women. So in general if you want to grasp all the tragedy of Ciociara you should first read a book and then it would be very ridiculous to compare it with the film where De Sica even in the most tragic moment didn't forget to set off Loren's semi-nude bust. Well if her husband is a producer it's quite acceptable.
