Yahoo News Hollywood Flashback: ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ Had a Big Oscar Win in 1965
Italy has been a regular contender for the international feature Oscar since the 1940s, having won the award 14 times — the most of any country. Four of those winners were directed by Vittorio De Sica, whose 1946 film, Shoeshine, was the first foreign film to be recognized by the Academy with an honorary Oscar. Four years later, his Bicycle Thieves earned the honor. And in 1963, he collaborated with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on what would become Italy’s third international feature Oscar winner: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
The film is a comedy anthology divided into three parts, following a triad of Italian couples across three regions of Italy: “Adelina” tells of a wife (Loren) who supports her unemployed husband (Mastroianni) and family by selling black market cigarettes in Naples as she tries to stave off being incarcerated for her illegal activity by staying continuously pregnant. In “Anna,” Loren plays the wife of a rich industrialist in Milan and Mastroianni is her lover, Renzo; when they get into a car accident while out in her husband’s Rolls-Royce, Anna must evaluate whether she loves her lifestyle or Renzo more. And in “Mara,” a Roman sex worker (Loren) enlists one of her clients (Mastroianni) to help her convince her young neighbor, who is studying for the priesthood, that he is not in love with her and should stick with his chosen vocation.
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Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow marked the third film that Loren and Mastroianni had made together; they would go on to star alongside each other in 11 more. As a trio, De Sica, Mastroianni and Loren proved a potent combination, especially when it came to awards. While neither lead earned Oscar nominations for this film, Mastroianni would receive three best actor Oscar noms during the course of his career: for 1961’s Divorce Italian Style, for 1977’s A Special Day (which also starred Loren) and for the 1987 Italian-Soviet romance Dark Eyes. Loren, for her part, won the best actress Oscar for 1961’s Two Women, directed by De Sica. That victory made her the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance in a foreign language film. She also was nominated for best actress for 1964’s Marriage Italian Style and received an honorary Oscar in 1991.
This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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