A Special Day

NRDrama, Romance

Synopsis

It's the late 1930's Rome. It's a national holiday in Italy today for the first state visit of Adolf Hitler to the country. The occasion is being marked by a lavish parade with both Hitler and Benito Mussolini to celebrate their political friendship/alliance in the name of fascism. Most of the Roman populace will attend the parade to celebrate with their leader. Two that will not be are the following. Antonietta Taberi, who would have liked to have gone to the parade, has to stay at home to attend to her domestic chores in duty to her husband Emanuele and their six children, all who have gone to the parade without her. Gabriele is a former announcer on Italian Public Radio. Despite living in the same apartment complex (Gabriele only for the last two months) with their apartment windows facing each other across the courtyard, Antonietta and Gabriele meet for the first time today in Antonietta's need to access his apartment to retrieve her escaped myna bird. Their encounter is important to both of them if only for this one day. It takes Antonietta out of her humdrum life, where she is unappreciated and taken for granted by her family, her husband who she does not truly love. And Antonietta's arrival halts what Gabriele was contemplating doing in light of the reason behind he not wanting to go to the parade and he no longer working as a radio announcer, that act which would replace the alternative of what will be happening to him later in the day.

Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for A Special Day (1977) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, Françoise Berd, Patrizia Basso, Tiziano De Persio DIRECTOR: Ettore Scola CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pasqualino De Santis MUSIC: Armando Trovajoli PRODUCTION: C. C. Champion, Canafox Films

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for A Special Day (1977). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

150px|Maurizio Costanzo, Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola wrote the screenplay, after Maccari had learned about an incident in Fascist Italy in which homosexuals were arrested and taken to Sardinia. Particularly, the story of broadcaster Nunzio Filogamo was an inspiration to the story, as Filogamo always had to carry a certificate stating he was not homosexual.

The actors selected for the roles defied type casting, as Marcello Mastroianni was often seen in previous roles as "the prototype of the Italian Latin lover," and Sophia Loren was perceived as a sexy Italian celebrity. Along with Il bell'Antonio and I Don't Want to Talk About It, this is one of Mastroianni's roles critiquing the Italian masculine figure as an incompetent character falling behind an evolving society.

Due to the abundance of news coverage of Hitler's visit to Rome in 1938, the filmmakers had plenty of footage to work with when writing the screenplay. The public service film The Führer's Trip to Italy was especially mined for footage.

Several unusual cinematic techniques are used in this film. A long take scene introduces Antonietta and her family: the camera enters through the kitchen window and moves into the rooms. Deep focus is utilized in a scene where the camera is positioned in Antonietta's room, with her in the frame, and through a distant window, Gabriele can be seen moving in his house, all within the same frame simultaneously. In post-production, cinematic color grading was applied to the film, giving it a muted sepia tone throughout.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 13 wins & 5 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ César Award for Best Foreign Film ★ Golden Globe Award for Best Non-English Language Film

Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (50th Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Actor (50th Academy Awards) ○ International Submission to the Academy Awards