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Sophia Loren radiates through the history of Italian cinema. The Vittorio De Sica anthology film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) is largely remembered for Loren’s famous striptease in its third act—a steamy yet humorous scene wherein the voluptuous Loren slowly exposes herself to a hilariously aroused Marcello Mastroianni. But the film is more than an inspiration for decades of audiences to rush out and buy black lingerie. It’s a wonderful showcase of Loren’s talents. The film is actually three separate vignettes which together tell stories of female identity, sexuality, and the power and control women have over men.

Across the three segments (titled “Adelina,” “Anna,” and “Mara,” after Loren’s characters in each), Loren transforms from mother to whore. The first and third segments hold the emotional meat of the film; in both, her personas engage with their fates in honest but sympathetic ways. In the second part, meanwhile, she’s a cold and passionless woman who gets away with being miserable. But in all three, she’s captivating and committed and shows an organic rapport both with Mastroianni and director De Sica.

The Spinning Image has a nice take on the film, writing that it “offers a subversive study of macho Italian manhood unmasked as ineffectual or in thrall to a spiritually and sexually indomitable woman. Some have suggested each of the film’s heroines embodies the spirit of her city. Just as De Sica adopts a subtly different style for each episode, so too does his leading lady adopt a radically different persona.”

“Adelina” is the story of a pregnant woman fined for selling black market cigarettes. She can’t pay the fine but discovers a legal loophole restricting pregnant women from being arrested. She’s given six months after the birth to nurse, and then she’ll have to head to jail. Instead, she embarks on a quest to bear child after child, constantly remaining pregnant and thus avoiding her sentence—much to the chagrin of her worn-out husband Carmine (Mastroianni) who’s having trouble keeping up with her.

Adelina is loud, passionate, direct, and stereotypically Italian. Loren, out of form in the disheveled character, still shines through as a beauty with massive spirit, and she brings a powerful personality to the character. She wisecracks with her neighbors and snubs the police with great comedic timing, bestowing the segment with some of the film’s funnier moments.

The segment offers up challenges to the notions of love and fidelity while celebrating the community solidarity underlying Adeline’s poor neighborhood. When Adelina eventually winds up in jail, everyone in town chips in to get her out—even the cops. Loren’s nurturing nature grows with each kid she has, and her believability as a passionate and dominant Italian mother is earned.

“Anna,” the second segment, is brief in length and message. More of an interlude between the two substantial parts of the film, this section features Loren taking on the roll of a fancy socialite who drives a Rolls Royce and brings men who aren’t her husband along for the ride. Mastroianni is her man-du-jour, who seems amazed he’s been chosen. Anna swoons over him until he accidentally crashes the car to avoid hitting a child—an act she deems ridiculous. Her lust quickly dissolves, and she dismisses him.

The segment bridges the comical nature of the first part with the sexed-up tension of what’s to come, while poking fun at our expected image of the global sex symbols starring in the film. Smells Like Screen Spirit writes, “Loren and Mastroianni’s characters are cleverly juxtaposed by De Sica with their characters in the first vignette. These are the sophisticated and sexy characters we are used to seeing Loren and Mastroianni portray; and ‘Anna’ is photographed out in the ‘real world,’ which is more typical of De Sica’s neorealist aesthetic.”

It’s the least demanding of Loren’s acting skills, but the contrast to the character she plays in the first part is profound, and the two roles together show the versatility of Loren’s acting as she moves from one extreme to another.

The final segment (arguably the best of the three) highlights everything that defines Sophia Loren. It shows her off—and shows her off—giving viewers the complete picture of her acting chops, comedic timing, dramatic power and incredible physical appeal.

DVDTalk discusses the segment, saying, “The voluptuous Loren was gorgeous, and her appeal as one of cinema’s great timeless beauties is obvious. She was also an incredible actress, and for as sensual as the dance may be, she sticks the landing with perfect comic timing. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is really a showcase for her many talents, and though there are connective traits between all three of her characters, they each require different dramatic touches.”

Again from The Spinning Image: “In ‘Mara’ Loren plays a truly spirited woman, by turns uninhibited and proud yet fiercely moral, combining decency with sensuality. Compared to her Oscar winning role in De Sica’s relentlessly grim Two Women (1960), the multilayered characterizations she delivers throughout Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow have dated far better.”

The shared message of all three vignettes is that sex is a powerful weapon, and there’s no better actress than Loren to convey that fact. Her physical attributes combined with her versatile range as an actress to craft three measurably separate and intriguing characters. Her comedic chops shine prominently, whether conveyed with her physical acting or with a nuanced glance. Her dramatic efforts are easy to feel. And her management of boundaries is exceptional, as she perfectly pulls off the snobbiness of the rich next to the humility of the poor.

It’s no surprise Loren took the title of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow to double as the title of her autobiography. It’s a great resume of everything that has made her a cinematic legend over the past 60 years.