This may be a recent release but between its stark black and white visuals and the post-World War 2 Italian setting, sure doesn’t look like it. It’s deliberately anachronistic in more ways too, being shot in the neorealist style of the 1940s and 1950s and being about how horribly oppressed women of that time were. Yet its genius is that even as it superficially purports to be a film of that era, it subverts expectations to deliver a thoroughly modern message of female empowerment with a dose of wry humor. The twist at the end is perhaps too abrupt but does successfully prevent the film from reverting back into the usual clichés.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Rome is occupied by Allied troops and the populace suffers from poverty. Delia is a typical working class housewife of the period. Her husband Ivano makes most of the money and rules the household with an iron fist, physically and verbally abusing Delia for every perceived failing. She is forced to fulfill her household duties including caring for her bedridden father-in-law Ottorino and still do odd jobs for money including sewing and laundering. Her daughter Marcella is horrified at the abuse and is eager to get married to her boyfriend Giulio whose family runs a successful cafe. Her two sons are younger and badly behaved, brought up in the same vein as the other men in the family. One day Delia picks up and returns a photograph to an American soldier William who is grateful and wants to help her. She also runs into Nino, a former flame of hers who still loves her and is experiencing hardship in his job as a mechanic. When Giulio proposes that his family meet theirs, she must host the richer family because Ivano insists on following tradition and must suffer through the humiliation.

The crisp black and white imagery are a real delight and crammed full of detail about life at that time. As Delia marches out of the basement in which her family lives, she walks past other Italians in the street, visits the busy market, deals with shopkeepers and in doing so gives us an excellent snap shot of the era. The theme of women being oppressed is a powerful one and the casualness of the men taking it for granted that they are superior is still something that is shocking. Ivano is fine with paying to have his sons educated but sees no point in having Marcella go to school. After beating Delia up, he orders her to help him dress for an evening out on the town, likely with whores. Yet the question raises itself. Why make such a film in the here and now? It appears to me that director and co-writer Paola Cortellesi, who also stars as Delia herself here, wanted to make the kind of film that should have been made in the 1940s and 1950s, the so-called Golden Age of Italian Cinema, to highlight the plight of women. Of course no such film existed then so why not make one now?

So this film does feel old-fashioned and unsubtle but that’s the point. Ottorino castigates Ivano for beating Delia too much, not out of concern for her but because it makes the beatings ineffective as she becomes inured to it. Though the two sons are still children, we can already see how they are going to grow up to just be like their father and grandfather. What’s great is that it does feel modern in important ways such as how the women of the community are part of Delia’s support system. They are unable to directly stand up to the men but they do offer help in minor ways. It’s unlikely that a male neorealist director would think to include such details. In lieu of explicitly showing Delia being badly beaten, it stylizes the sequence as a musical to make it look both foolish and funny. Most of all, it teases the possibility that Delia will escape her fate the traditional way by being saved by another man but then twists away. It’s a little unrealistic in that it doesn’t solve Delia’s immediate problems but the sentiment that this is the only way to empower women for the long-term is appreciated.

This is amazingly Cortellesi debut as a director after a long career as an actress. She displays both technical proficiency and a deft sensitivity to women’s issues. There’s a powerful moment when Marcella repeatedly challenges Delia about why she stays and puts up with the abuse. The simple truth is that Delia stays for her children and Marcella in particular but of course she cannot say it, such is the depth of her love. This may be a film that looks dated, but it’s a thoroughly modern one in all the ways that matter.