MovieChat Forums > Pane e tulipani (2001) Discussion > Rosalba is a sleazy slimy slut

Rosalba is a sleazy slimy slut

posted 19 years ago by EnemyOfTheState
22 replies | jump to latest

I really do not see why people liked this flick so much. Its about a bored housewife who goes to Venice and ditches her husband.

The Screenwriter did throw in a suggestion that her husband was cheating, I suppose that it was to make us feel that she was justified or something like that. But I think it was a contraption so that we the filmgoer would not feel bad for liking Rosalba. But I for one did not buy it.

But I would say that, as much as I disliked this film there were two decent characters, one was the fat private eye and the other was the anarchist florist.

[–] monideepa-1 19 years ago

Well, of course the husband was cheating! These is a scene where he and his mistress are in bed together and he is asking her to iron a few shirts of his and when she refuses, he mutters, "well i figured after 5 years together."

[–] Castorell 19 years ago

EnemyOfTheState, are you seriously suggesting that she should have stayed with her husband, who forgot her at a road restaurant? Even if he wouldn't have cheated on her (which he did), he was a total idiot. Rosalba rocked for taking her life in her own hands.

By the way, I agree with you on the decent characters.

I'm BOTH! I'm a celebrity - in an emergency.

[–] EnemyOfTheState 19 years ago

I guess I am from the old school and believe that married couples need to stick together.

Oh well.

[–] miestersean 19 years ago

I really liked Fernando, even more than the Florist. His vocabulary and diction were hilarious. And he looked funny lip-syncing.

[–] intriguement 19 years ago

I could not disagree more - it's her husband who's the sleaze! His total lack of interest in her can be seen in the way he ignores her on the train, forgets to see if she's with the group, shows no sympathy when she tells him she got left behind - and especially in his interaction with her when she goes home. She tries to tell him why she left, but he tells her not to talk about it. It's not that he's forgiven her; he's simply not interested in her thoughts or feelings. He doesn't care what she was doing in Venice or why she went there, as long as she's back now to make him look respectable. When she tries to talk at dinner, he brushes her off by saying that she knows nothing about plumbing fixtures. His mistress's comment to him that "Of course I won't iron your shirts. I'm your mistress, not your wife" shows that he sees a wife simply as a housekeeper.

Pay attention to the names the other characters call her - her husband calls her Alba while his mistress calls her Rosy, but her Venetian friends call her by her full name. This highlights the fact that her family sees only the aspects of her personality that are convenient for them, while her new friends see her as a full person.

The movie also does a great job of showing that her older son treats her the same way her husband does. Her younger son has more of a friendship with her, and she actually takes him with her at the end. He isn't interested in school and doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, so she gives him the opportunity to discover himself as she did. The movie makes it clear that when Rosalba leaves her husband, she is not "breaking up her family." Her boys are both grown. Her older son has already chosen to reject her, and she uses the divorce to help her younger son. Her sleazy husband gets what he deserves. Rosalba rediscovers her life. Everyone wins!

[–] remylebeau55 19 years ago

ur an idiot...married people need to stay together if its going good..not if one is cheating and the other one is unhappy and bored...these days u shouldnt suffer for the movie...And how is she a slut he was the one cheating on her,,,she has every right to do what she has done...;she wanted to find herself

[–] Roxanne_Chong 13 years ago

exactly.

[–] alicornbabyjewel_1704 19 years ago

You know, I'm old fashioned as well, believing that a couple should stick together through thick and thin, but I wouldn't take it so far as to stay in a marriage with no love and no respect. That isn't a marriage, and I don't think you'd like what I'd call it! She was right to extricate herself from the situation, and besides, she never slept with Fernando. She just learned to live! How does that make her a skeazy slut?

[–] dwblurb 19 years ago

What an amazing comment.

I was worried towards the end when she moved back home that we were going to get one of these endings where the wife realises she really needs the husband and her family and Fernando finds he has come back to life and finds someone else. Fortunately, we got what should happen in those circs - the two of them ended up together.

Sure, the husband was unfaithful to Rosalba, but far worse, he was a boring, insensitive, vulgar pleb. Why should she want to waste her life staying with him and cleaning the house simply because they are married?

[–] camoux 18 years ago

EnemyOfTheState, you are a bloody idiot.

[–] dave-2608 18 years ago

I'm all for people trying to stick together, but there comes a point where it might not be worth fighting for. Would that guy have done the same thing if the roles were reversed? When she came back, he never apologized or he just said "pretend nothing happened." He had his maid back, that's all he needed.

(Not to mention, if Rosalba is available, maybe she'll go on a date with me. She is absoutely beautiful. And she speaks fluent Italian. I hope she has a thing for younger American men.)

As far as the movie goes, I really enjoyed it. It's classic as one other person mentioned. But it's classic in that Italian comedy kind of way which I can't explain, I just know it when I see it.

The characters were perfect, a crazy ensemble of seemingly unrelated folks brought together by most unpredictable events.

[–] hagi02 18 years ago

you know with a subject line like that, i really think he just made that comment to piss people off and see how many reactions he could get..

[–] msfnyc 17 years ago

Typical American conservative male response to think of any woman who goes off to find herself is a sleazy slut. She did not actually plan it, the whole thing kind of fell into place and she went with it. And why not. Husband was a sleazy slut.

[–] user1684 18 years ago

A couple of observations.

Her husband ditched her when he left her alone at the rest stop not the other way around. She didn't ditch anyone, she took a vacation in Venice, and gave notice to her family of her intentions. Nothing wrong with that.

Also, there was no evidence that she cheated on her husband while she was vacationing in Venice. She slept on the couch until Fernando offered her the room at the end of the hall. Clearly they slept in different rooms. So why is she a slut? Au contraire, I would call her a person with high moral standards. Furthermore, when she found out her son may be using "drugs" she ended her vacation immediately and returned home.

The husband on the other hand, not only had a mistress, but also had a scantily clad woman in his room when his wife called to inform him she would be spending the night in Venice. Presumably that woman spent the night with the husband, while the wife stayed by herself at the Pensione. Nothing wrong with that either.

The emotional abuses the wife had to endure is probably more painful than having a spouse who cheats and is probably one of the main reasons she choose Fernando in the end. No person husband or wife has to put up with that type of abuse. I would take a permanent vacation too.

The other two characters were interesting and helped round out the film.

[–] mnoe 17 years ago

Catherine was a sleazy slimy slut and a murderess.

I think "sleazy slimy slut" is just the way Enemy thinks of women. He calls himself an anarchist but thinks women should be slaves to the marriage contract their husbands are flouting.

Forget Googling your dates! I think you should just try to find out their comment name on IMDb.

last 2 dvds: "I'm Alan Partridge" & Dressed to Kill (1941)

[–] user1684 17 years ago

Good point!

Guys use the "Slut" word as sword when they aren't successful in trying to bed a woman. (Or another guy for that matter)

I don't understand your last sentence about forget googling your dates???

What are you trying to say?

[–] mnoe 17 years ago

I meant if you could read a person's IMDb comments, you'd be a long way toward knowing whether you are seeing a person's real face. I wouldn't want anyone dating Mr.Enemy without seeing what he writes about women on these boards.

last dvd: Homecoming (1996)
last movie: Superbad (2007)

[–] user1684 17 years ago

That makes sense. I suppose you can get a good
feel for a person by how they write on IMDB.

I loved this movie.

[–] sweep24m 16 years ago

"The husband on the other hand, not only had a mistress, but also had a scantily clad woman in his room when his wife called to inform him she would be spending the night in Venice. Presumably that woman spent the night with the husband, while the wife stayed by herself at the Pensione. Nothing wrong with that either."

I think that was the long-haired son, not a woman.

[–] stevenvh 14 years ago

Oh no, that PC thing again...

suggestion that her husband was cheating

What "suggestion"? He did. Not easy, is it, facing facts that don't suit you?
You also did notice that he didn't do anything but shouting, and that he didn't even miss his wife after they left her at the freeway restaurant, did you?

--
Rome. By all means, Rome.

[–] angelosdaughter (158) 4 years ago

No, she is not! But she certainly is a klutz.

[–] Stratego (31048) 4 years ago

I have to laugh at the people who excuse her behavior just because the husband was a cheater. If he's a sleaze, then so is she. She didn't just divorce her husband, she abandoned her family just because of another man. Strong, independent woman? My ass.