The fight for women’s freedom and their proper life in a patriarchal world: The italian film“C’è ancora domani” and the history of Delia.

Nowadays women’s role has become more relevant and important than their past presence in history: they have their own work, they are indipendent and can choose about their own life, so, if they want to get married and have children. With no doubt the saddest thing is that it’s not still normal the fact that a woman can have a different situation respect the ancient times. Indeed, it depends on each woman’s voluntee but it’s common to see that women still must stay at home, to take care of the house and the kids and they have no choose to change their life, even if they want to make them indipendent.

Let’s go back to 1946 in Italy: after the II Post War, women were between the rising freedom and the total absence of it. This is because the 2nd of June 1946 women started to vote in Italy, but they were still in a patriarchal system and way of living their life.

Paola Cortellesi, a famous italian actress, represented this part of the story in her film entitled “C’è ancora domani”, translated then in american english as “There’s still tomorrow”. Paola Cortellesi has co-written, directed and interpreted the main character in this film.

The film is the story of the family Santucci, that lives in Rome during the 1946 and the Second World War had just ended. Delia is a mother and a wife, the only roles that she can have. Her husband Ivano reminds her that she is nothing and catches every occasion to humiliate her also in front of their sons. But her desire to be independent pushes her to do some little works, like the one of streamstress and nurse. Part of her money is used to contribute to the family sustainment, but she saves every day a little sum for her daughter Marcella’s future. Marcella is courted by a young and wealthy boy, whose name is Giulio. Delia sees how he behaves with her daughter, so she decides to save her daughter from her same destiny and with the help of William, an american soldier and Delia’s friend, she destroyes Giulio’s family patisserie. Finally, her daughter can fstudy using the money that Delia saved for her. At the end of the film, Delia can escape from her house and reaches the place where there are many women that can vote for the first time in the history of Italy. Ivano attemmpts to stop her from voting, because he was afraid about her evident freedom, but there was a group a woman, all strongs, all independents with their lipstick on their mouth against him, like it was the representation of the common fight of the women for their rights against Ivano, who represents the patriarchal system.

Paola Cortellesi’s film is the demonstration of how a woman can do all the things she wants on her own, both in and outside the film.

Written by Federica Egidia Maria Rita Nato

References:

1. Sky TG24 Article

2. Vogue Italia Article

3. Wikipedia