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Line 1: {{short description|1991 film}} {{Use dmy dates|date= {{Infobox film | name = The Conviction Line 8: | producer = [[Pietro Valsecchi]] | writer = Marco Bellocchio<br>[[Massimo Fagioli]] | starring = [[Vittorio Mezzogiorno]]<br/>[[Andrzej Seweryn]]<br/>[[Claire Nebout]]<br/>[[Grażyna Szapołowska]] | music = [[Carlo Crivelli]] | cinematography = [[Giuseppe Lanci]] Line 19: }} '''''The Conviction''''' ({{lang-it|'''La condanna'''}}) is a 1991 Italian [[drama film]] directed by [[Marco Bellocchio]]. It was entered into the [[41st Berlin International Film Festival]] where it won the [[Jury Grand Prix|Silver Bear ==Plot== Sandra Celestini, a college student on a field trip with her art class, becomes trapped overnight in a museum. The only other company there is Lorenzo Colajanni, an architect. Lorenzo befriends Sandra and eventually seduces her into having sex with him. Sandra later discovers that Lorenzo had the museum keys the whole time. She brings rape charges against him. During the trial, Lorenzo pontificates on the nature of consent and maintains Sandra desired the sex. He argues that because Sandra orgasmed during their night together, her pleasure implies consent, and therefore what he did cannot be considered rape. Giovanni, the state attorney, succeeds in convicting Lorenzo, but he is met with disapproval instead of praise from the general public. Giovanni's wife Monica, who is sexually dissatisfied in her marriage and longs for a more aggressive partner, is repulsed by the trial's outcome and ends up leaving Giovanni. Lorenzo is ultimately sentenced to jail. Giovanni happens to run into Sandra at a party, but when she sees the attorney, she pushes his face into a cake. ==Cast== {{cast listing| * [[Vittorio Mezzogiorno]] as Lorenzo Colajanni * [[Andrzej Seweryn]] as Giovanni * [[Claire Nebout]] as Sandra Celestini * [[Grażyna Szapołowska]] as Monica * [[Maria Schneider (actress)|Maria Schneider]] as * [[Paolo Graziosi]] as Giudice ▲* [[Maria Schneider (actress)|Maria Schneider]] as La contadina }}
==Release==
The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1991.<ref name="ChiFest" /> It later opened theatrically in Italy on February 28, 1991. In the United States, it screened at the [[Chicago International Film Festival]]<ref name="ChiFest">{{cite news |title=Strange Encounter |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/10/21/strange-encounter/ |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=October 21, 1991 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240207235505/https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/10/21/strange-encounter/ |archive-date=2024-02-07 |url-status=live}}</ref> and was given a limited theatrical release beginning on May 13, 1994.<ref name="James" />
==Critical reception==
The film received a mixed response and generated controversy for its treatment of rape and [[consent]],<ref name="ChiFest" /> with some critics contending that the film pushes a [[Rape culture|victim blaming]] sentiment. [[Caryn James]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said the film "takes topical, explosive issues -- rape, sexual harassment, power plays between the sexes -- and reduces them into a forgettable puff of hot air".<ref name="James">{{cite news |last1=James |first1=Caryn |title=Reviews/Film; The War of the Sexes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/13/movies/reviews-film-the-war-of-the-sexes.html |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 13, 1994}}</ref> ''[[TV Guide (magazine)|TV Guide]]'' wrote, "The film's greatest weakness is that it sticks chunks of position-paper talking into the mouths of the characters, rather than allowing them dimensions beyond their sexual grievances or revealing their contradictory attitudes through engaging dialogue."<ref name="TVGuide">{{cite web |title=The Conviction |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/the-conviction/review/2000005625/ |website=[[TV Guide (magazine)|TV Guide]] |access-date=8 February 2024}}</ref> The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' praised the cinematography but similarly criticized the dialogue, particularly in the trial scenes, as "so arch and pretentious the film seems unconsciously comic".<ref name="TribuneRev">{{cite news |title=Bellocchio’s New Film Lacks True Conviction |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1994/10/04/bellocchios-new-film-lacks-true-conviction/ |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=October 4, 1994}}</ref> ''TV Guide'' added, "Since director Marco Bellocchio doesn't choose to shape the speeches with any artistic flourish, ''The Conviction'' remains unadorned monologue art. It's the ideas that excite, rather than the quality of the writing. Although Bellocchio tries to balance the conflicting points of view (forced sex vs. consensual sex in a calculated power play), he really seems bent on creating an apologia for Lorenzo."<ref name="TVGuide" /> In the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'', [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] wrote, "Bellocchio seems to think he has a point; as he puts it, 'I am convinced that violence against women must be severely punished by law, but at the same time the perpetrator or the rapist is not really a rapist, but the 'ideal' man which every woman is looking for deep down, the man who does not destroy the woman’s identity, but by stimulating her desire does not disappoint her and therefore enables her to 'be born' and to strengthen her own identity.' Come again?"<ref name="Rosenbaum">{{cite news |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=Jonathan |title=The Conviction |url=https://chicagoreader.com/film/the-conviction/ |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=[[Chicago Reader]]}}</ref> Marjorie Baumgarten of ''[[The Austin Chronicle]]'' gave the film 1 and ½ out of 5 stars.<ref name="Austin" /> She wrote the film "fits a morality play structure more than a drama. And, while the morality under examination is fascinating and may actually lead to some breakthrough discoveries, the assumptions guiding its path are grounded in patriarchal nonsense and cultural sandbags."<ref name="Austin">{{cite news |last1=Baumgarten |first1=Marjorie |title=The Conviction |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/1994-11-18/138408/ |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |date=November 18, 1994}}</ref> Caryn James added, "Mr. Bellocchio obviously intends the sly references and stylized nature of this film, but he couldn't possibly have intended it to be this much of a howler. Relations between the sexes are complicated, but rarely as lunatic as they are made to seem here."<ref name="James" /> ==References== Line 40 ⟶ 53: ==External links== *{{imdb title|id=0099296|title=The Conviction}} *{{AllMovie title}} {{Marco Bellocchio}} Line 46 ⟶ 60: {{DEFAULTSORT:Conviction}} [[Category:1991 films]] [[Category:Italian films]]▼ [[Category:Italian drama films]]▼ [[Category:Italian-language films]]▼ [[Category:1991 drama films]] ▲[[Category:Italian drama films]] ▲[[Category:Italian erotic drama films]] [[Category:Italian independent films]] [[Category:1990s ▲[[Category:1990s Italian-language films]] [[Category:1990s legal drama films]] [[Category:Films directed by Marco Bellocchio]] [[Category:Courtroom films]] ▲[[Category:1990s legal films]] [[Category:Films about rape]] [[Category:Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winners]] [[Category:1990s Italian films]]
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