Mutterliebe, Mutterleid (1951)

Mutterliebe, Mutterleid: Directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. With Yvonne Sanson, Amedeo Nazzari, Françoise Rosay, Folco Lulli. The tragic love story between Guido, the owner of a marble quarry and Luisa, the humble daughter of one of his employees, ends up in her giving birth to a baby boy. Giulio’s mother is against them: at first she takes her son abroad with an excuse and then has her grandson kidnapped making Luisa think the boy died in a fire.

“This is pretty much the same as TORMENTO, only a little more so. More suffering, more vicious villains, more Catholic themes. Sanson and Nazzari both return, again as a couple torn apart by a manipulative mother with her own agenda, again with a newborn child who life hangs in the balance. Narrative nuance is pretty much tossed to the wolves, leaving just one sledgehammer tragedy after another. If you like your melodrama cranked up to the limit, this might be the film for you. I found it enjoyable just to see what happens next, but I canu0026#39;t say I was too invested in the characters.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNOBODYu0026#39;S CHILDREN – 7/10”