''Captain Corelli's Mandolin'' is a 2001

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by John Madden. It is based on the 1994 novel '' Captain Corelli's Mandolin'' by

Louis de Bernières Louis de Bernières (born 8 December 1954) is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 Historical fiction, historical war novel ''Captain Corelli's Mandolin''. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Nove ...

. The film pays homage to the thousands of Italian soldiers executed at the Massacre of the Acqui Division by German forces in

Cephalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia (), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallonia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th-largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It is also a separate regio ...

in September 1943, and to the people of Cephalonia who were killed in the post-war earthquake. The novel's protagonists are portrayed by actors

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Nicolas Cage, various accolades, including an Academy A ...

and Penélope Cruz.

Plot

Greece's

Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: , ; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: , ) are a archipelago, group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands"; , ''Heptanēsa'' or , ''Heptanē ...

are occupied by the

Italian Army The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...

when it brings a large

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

along with a few Germans to the tranquil island of

, whose inhabitants surrender immediately. Captain Antonio Corelli, an officer of the Italian 33rd Acqui Infantry Division, has a jovial personality and a passion for the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

and trains his battery of men (who have never fired a shot) to choral sing. Initially, he alienates a number of villagers, including Pelagia, the daughter of the village doctor. She is an educated and strong-willed woman. At first, offended by the Italian soldier's behaviour, she slowly warms to Corelli's charm, and mandolin playing, as they are forced to share her father's home after the doctor agrees to put him up in exchange for medical supplies. When Pelagia's fiancé, Mandras, a local fisherman, heads off to war on the mainland, the friendship between Antonio and Pelagia grows. Her beauty and intelligence have captured Corelli's heart, and his fondness for the village's vibrant community has caused him to question his reasons for fighting. Corelli and his battery of musical troops become a part of the villagers' lives, but the moment is fleeting. As the war draws closer, Antonio and Pelagia are forced to choose between their allegiances and love for one another. The Italian government surrenders to the Allies, and the Italian troops happily prepare to return home. However, their erstwhile allies, the Germans, insist on disarming them, intemperately and violently. The Greeks are also exposed to the brutality of the incoming Germans and arrange with the Italians to use their arms in a brief but futile resistance. For this, the German High Command has thousands of Italian troops shot as traitors. Corelli survives when one of his soldiers shields him from the fusillade of the German executioners' bullets with his body and falls dead on top of him. Mandras finds Corelli, still alive among the pile of massacred soldiers and takes him to Pelagia and the doctor for treatment and recovery, and then to a boat to escape the island. As a result of Pelagia's questioning, Mandras admits that he rescued Corelli from the heap of dead soldiers because he wanted to rekindle their love. But it does no good and the couple part. Earlier, on one of Mandras's return visits to Cephallonia, he admits to Pelagia that he never replied to her many love letters because he is illiterate. In 1947, Pelagia receives a parcel from Italy containing a record of the tune Corelli wrote for her, but no note. An

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

destroys much of the village including the doctor's house, but island life continues, and, soon after, Corelli returns to Pelagia.

Cast

as Captain Antonio Corelli * Penélope Cruz as Pelagia *

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was an English actor. Regarded as one of the finest actors of his time and known for the "most distinctive voice in Cinema of the United Kingdom, Britain", he was described by David Ly ...

as Dr. Yiannis *

Christian Bale Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. List of awards and nominations received by C ...

as Mandras * David Morrissey as Captain Günther Weber *

Irene Papas Irene Papas or Irene Pappas (, ; born Eirini Lelekou (); 3 September 1929 – 14 September 2022) was a Greek actress and singer who starred in over 70 films in a career spanning more than 50 years. She gained international recognition through ...

as Drosoula * Piero Maggio as Carlo * Gerasimos Skiadaressis as Mr. Stamatis * Aspasia Kralli as Mrs. Stamatis * Michael Yannatos as Kokolios * Dimitris Kaberidis as Father Arsenios * Pietro Sarubbi as Velisarios, The Strongman * Viki Maragaki as Eleni, Pelagia's friend * Joanna-Daria Adraktas as Young Lemoni * Ira Tavlaridis as Older Lemoni * Katerina Didaskalou as Lemoni's mother * Emilios Chilakis as Dimitris * Panagis Polichronatos as Partisan * Patrick Malahide as Colonel Johannes Barge * George Kotanidis as Mayor * Alberto the mischievous village cat, played by himself

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $13.8 million in the United Kingdom. The film opened at number six at the US box office, taking in $7,209,345 in its opening weekend and went on to gross $25,543,895 in the United States and Canada. It grossed an additional $22.8 million internationally for a total of $62,112,895 worldwide against a cost of $57 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of 28% based on reviews from 118 critics, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The cinematography is gorgeous, but the movie plays it fast and loose with history and the novel it was adapted from. Mostly, the movie fails because the romance between the leads strains credulity and the story is largely uninvolving." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Derek Elley of '' Variety'' praised the beautiful on-location shoot, but was critical of the film and wrote that it "Strikes too many false notes on the dramatic side to add up to a satisfying emotional experience."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave the film 2 out of 4, and suggested the film might have worked better with subtitles, pointing out the absurdity of one scene "where something is said in English pronounced with one accent, and a character asks, ''What did he say?'' and he is told -- in English pronounced with another accent."

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Film) 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films 2000s German-language films 2000s Greek-language films 2000s Italian-language films 2000s war drama films 2001 drama films 2001 films American war drama films BAC Films films British war drama films Buena Vista International films English-language French films Films based on British novels Films directed by John Madden Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan Films scored by Stephen Warbeck Films set in Axis-occupied Greece Films set in Greece Films set in the Mediterranean Sea Films set on islands Films shot in Greece Films with screenplays by Shawn Slovo French war drama films Italian occupation of Greece during World War II Miramax films StudioCanal films Working Title Films films English-language war drama films