ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

dmvianna This movie is based on the true memoirs of the main character (Curzio Malaparte) during his time when he acted as diplomatic liaison between the Allied forces and the Italian in the newly occupied Italy. The book is a collection of short stories depicting the collapse of the Italian society under Allied occupation. There is no story line between those short stories. The movie puts them in chronological order, but the reigning chaos and lack of moral message (the message is exactly the lack of morality) can confuse the spectator.This is a very original war movie, in that the main theme is the not the war front. The Allied are not viewed from their own perspective, which is one of true liberators. Instead, the movie shows the Italian people courting the Allies as liberators in order to escape from starvation. The Allies themselves are caught in a trap where they know the Italian hospitality isn't sincere, but are unable to understand why. They don't realize that before them, the Germans were courted as liberators too, and that in this context of food shortage and general poverty, the only way the Italians have to secure their survival is to play that game.Malaparte (played by Marcello Mastroiani) acts then as a translator, helping the Americans as a guide would help a tourist, by explaining in each situation why people are acting in this seemingly dishonorable way.La Pelle (The Skin) would make more sense if compared to Malaparte's twin book on the occupied Europe (Kaputt, or Broken to Pieces). In the latter, he portrays the Nazi way of oppressing through violence. In La Pelle, he shows how the Americans achieve a similar result through economic means, while refusing any responsibility. In Kaputt, Jewish women are made prostitutes by the German Army to escape death by the bullet; in La Pelle, Italian women become prostitutes for the American Army to escape death by starvation.

soonergooner I enjoyed the movie but I am a bit biased since I had a bit part in it. I was in the US Army and serving in Naples when Cavani came looking for extras.The books is pretty good, so if you read that you will appreciate the movie even less because quite frankly, although it tries to follow parts of the book, it doesn't do a good job. I agree with another writer who said that it was pretty disjointed. I felt that. It seemed to jump from one scene to another and often there was no order to them. Also, I don't remember Alexandra King's part in the book - a US pilot with a US senator husband. That was pretty ridiculous! The best thing about the movie, I feel, was the soundtrack.By all means see the movie if you have a couple of hours (or whatever the running time is) to kill or if, like me, you were an extra.(PS - if anybody can find a copy of the movie for me in English please contact me. Thanks!)

i00ii0 I'd like to say that all these comments against this movie are inaccurate. La Pelle is a great movie. Hollywood would never make a movie like this. This movie has nothing to do with `Pearl Harbor'. La Pelle is a work of art, this is not another US war propaganda designed for a public brain wash. This movie is realistic, funny and sad at the same time. The story is very cleaver, intelligent. Perhaps, Americans don't like it because this movie depicts the US army involved in prostitution and in a certain disregard for the Italian people. Anyway, it's the best war movie I've ever watched in my life. There is no lies like in `Rambo', there is no hate like in `Platoon' (in which is good movie too). I recommend , I would say that it's excellent.

radlov This movie, which is situated in Italy in 1944, when the Nazis were being driven out by the American army, drew a lot of attention in Italy when it came out in 1980. I watched it in an Italian cinema the year after its release and did not like it.In my opinion, the director tried to draw a large audience by producing a movie wíth a maximum of shocking scenes, hoping that it would be discussed a lot (which was the case). The movie perspires, however, such a negative atmosphere, that even the presence of such famous actors like Marcello Mastroiani and Claudia Cardinale could not save it.That a war movie presents some shocking scenes is quite natural. But in « La Pelle » they are not balanced by any scenes transpiring humanity and positive sentiments.That a movie about the same period can be an enjoyment to watch, is shown, for example, by « La Notte di San Lorenzo » by the brothers Taviani, a film I can warmly recommend. I would not recommend « La Pelle » to anyone.