More Than a Miracle

It’s Cinderella Italian Style: Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif play peasant and prince in this sumptuously shot, oddball fairy tale from Francesco Rosi. It’s the 17th century, Italy is under Spanish rule, and its hot-headed Prince Rodrigo (Sharif)—in leather pants and open shirt—flees his family under their pressure to choose a wife among a coterie of Italian princesses. While on the lam he meets a flying monk(!) who tells him the same thing: specifically, that he marry the next woman who prepares him seven dumplings…. Enter the formidably temperamental Isabella (Loren), looking nothing less than regal despite her raggy clothes. What follows is a most unusual love-hate courtship unfolding in vignette style and featuring everything from consorting witches, a frenzied dishwashing contest, and Loren rolling away to sea trapped inside a barrel, all set to an inspired score from Piero Piccioni. 2K DCP by Cinecittà.