When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 6 nominations
- Father Aresenios
- (as Dimitris Kamperidis)
- Velisarios, The Strongman
- (as Pedro Sarubbi)
- Dimitris
- (as Aimilios Heilakis)
- Mayor
- (as George Kotanidis)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWriter Louis de Bernières re-wrote the book approximately thirty-five times, to ensure he had gotten details told to him by locals as accurate as possible.
- GoofsThe movie implies that the earthquake that devastated Cephallonia after World War II occurred in 1947. It was actually in 1953. At the end of the credits, the movie is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the post-war earthquake of 1953. The DVD commentary also mentions the correct date.
- Quotes
Iannis: When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No... don't blush. I am telling you some truths. For that is just being in love; which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But it is!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Conan: Everybody Wang But Don't Chung Tonight (2011)
- SoundtracksRicordo Ancor
(Pelagia's Song)
Written by Stephen Warbeck and Paco Reconti (as Reconti)
Performed by Russell Watson
Courtesy of Decca Music Group
The love triangle is an interesting one and strikes me as believable, because I know it happened in various places under occupation. Penelope Cruz played Pelagia, a young Greek girl engaged to be married to Mandras (Christian Bale). I had questions about the depth of their love from the start, but their future was torn apart when Italy invaded Greece, and Mandras went off to fight. After German intervention, Greece is conquered and the island Pelagia lives on comes under Italian occupation, during which Pelagia meets and begins to fall in love with Captain Corelli (Nicholas Cage.) This, of course, was a dilemma that came to many young women in occupied lands. As they got to know their occupiers, they started to see them not as the enemy but as real people, and sometimes fell in love - often to the disapproval of their neighbours. I just finished reading an interesting book about the German occupation of Britain's Channel Islands in which this was a major issue. Once Mandras returns to the island, Pelagia is torn between them.
The second background issue is the Italian occupation itself, which I thought was quite realistically portrayed. First was the contempt with which the island treated their Italian occupiers. Greece defeated Italy (quite true from a historical perspective) and was really conquered by the Germans. The refusal of the town to surrender to the Italians and instead to insist on surrendering to a German officer struck me as something that could well have happened (and was quite funny in fact. I loved the line, "we would rather surrender to this German's dog than to you Italians.") The portrayal of the Italian troops also struck me as believable. The Italian Army was never enamoured of their German ally, and never enthusiastic about fighting with them. Although Hitler and Mussolini were close friends, their soldiers tended to treat each other with contempt. Here, the Italians are more interested in singing than fighting (which the German troops on the island simply can't understand,) and are ecstatic when Italy makes peace and withdraws from the war - until they discover that this may well make them prisoners of the Germans. It was all quite well done, I thought.
It falters a bit at the end with an all too predictable finish, but still deserves praise.
7/10
- sddavis63
- Aug 10, 2002
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Cây đàn Mandolin của Đại úy Corelli
- Filming locations
- Chorgota Beach, Komitata Village, Kefallonia Island, Greece(exterior scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $57,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $25,543,895
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,209,345
- Aug 19, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $62,112,895
- Runtime2 hours 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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