In Marriage Italian Style (1964), Marcello Mastroianni played Domenico Soriano, a wealthy Naples businessman who, over many years, keeps his lover Filumena, played by Sophia Loren, at arm’s length, until she tricks him into marriage by pretending to be dying. Directed by Vittorio De Sica, the film is a comedy of love, pride and Neapolitan cunning.
Domenico is selfish, charming and finally humbled, and Mastroianni plays him with the ease of an actor who understands that comedy can be serious. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it remains the definitive Loren and Mastroianni pairing, a story in which a woman’s patience and wit finally win out over a man’s vanity.