A number of reviews here seem a little harsh even though a number of faults, particularly in the direction, can hardly be glossed over. I agree that the flashbacks add confusion to not so much the events but to the dramatic atmosphere of individual scenes. When one feels a certain empathy with a character is being elicited, the viewer is suddenly hurtled into another time and place.Hardly a 'spoiler', we know that the major characters portrayed more than adequately by Zingaretti and Bellucci, are executed by the partisans. But at the end of the film, I found myself asking the obvious: "What were their crimes that deserved the ultimate punishment"? There seems to have been an awareness of motives and actions of the ill-fated couple that is not adequately revealed in the film's plot. Nevertheless, this story led me to further explore historical facts relating to the waves of vengeance by anti-Mussolini forces, once the Nazis departed. The production values are commendable and despite some finding fault with the performances of Bellucci and Zingaretti, surely Alessio Boni as Golfiero deserves our praise.

This was a well structured, well crafted film with excellent acting throughout even if it was, at times, somewhat overacted with Monica Belluci the main culprit. The spirit of this film is, I think, summed up by a wonderful scene where the Osvaldo and Luisa are hiding in the secret room of a country residence, all Ann Frank, with Osvaldo going through a sickening bout of withdrawal from morphine and cocaine. So bad is he, in fact, that as a peasant girl watches, Luisa reaches in to Osvaldo's pants and masturbates him to sleep before wiping her hand on the blanket and embracing the child, encouraging her to pursue love and iterating that it is a truly wonderful thing, even if the scene she's just witnessed is horrid. The girl goes on to get raped and murdered. You wouldn't get this in Hollywood. Though provoking, challenging, interesting, mobile.

I had read the other reviews here, and considered the film worth a viewing, though without high expectations.I was very disappointed. (However I think the criticism of Bellucci is a little harsh: her character as written and directed was so asinine that it seems unfair to complain that she played 'a sofa' as 'a sofa'!) The cutting to flashback (another comment on IMDb) was about the only feature which was interesting about this film. At least it kept me awake! For me, an immeasurably better portrayal of fascist 'minor celebrities' and their cocaine habits is to be seen in Bertolucci's Millenovecento. I appreciate that Bertolucci's masterpiece is better remembered for 'the goodies' Gerard Depardieu and Sterling Hayden - but Act II gets to grips with the other aspects of the Mussolini regime, and the excesses of the 'favoured'.

Maybe if the director went a little easy on the flashbacks and allowed actors to grow with the scene the results would have been different. For me, Zingaretti was way over the top, needing Bellucci's passiveness to balance the scenes. I don't see any other actress playing Luisa Ferida. In all, the film lacks historic references, making it feel empty. When the story asks for continuity Giordana gives us a flashback, when the scene is at the point of climax he brings it down with a harsh cut. The story of Luisa Ferida and Osvaldo Valenti is so rich and yet, the film focuses more on Luisa's two loves instead on focusing on the drama of living hard in a divided country.