Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)

Director:

John Madden

Writers:

Shawn Slovo (screenplay)
Louis de Bernières (novel)

Release Date:

17 August 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance | War

Plot:

When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during WWII, his fiancee falls in love with the local Italian commander.

Plot Keywords:

Italian | Love | Island | Greek Island | Doctor

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Penélope Cruz	...	Pelagia
John Hurt	...	Dr. Iannis
Christian Bale	...	Mandras
Irene Papas	...	Drosoula
Gerasimos Skiadaressis	...	Mr. Stamatis
Aspasia Kralli	...	Mrs. Stamatis
Mihalis Giannatos	...	Kokolios
Dimitris Kaberidis	...	Father Aresenios (as Dimitris Kamperidis)
Pietro Sarubbi	...	Velisarios, The Strongman (as Pedro Sarubbi)
Viki Maragaki	...	Eleni, Pelagia's Friend
Joanna-Daria Adraktas	...	Young Lemoni
Ira Tavlaridis	...	Older Lemoni
Katerina Didaskalou	...	Lemoni's Mother
Emilios Chilakis	...	Dimitris
Nikos Karathanos	...	Spiros

Also Known As:

Capitaine Corelli (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

UK | France | USA

Language:

English | Greek | German | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Brazil:12 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Canada:14A | Chile:TE | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 (bw) | Hungary:14 | Italy:T | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG (edited for re-rating) | Singapore:R(A) (original rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #37955)

Filming Locations:

Kefallonia island, Greece

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Writer Louis de Bernières rewrote the book approximately 35 times to ensure he had got details told to him by locals as accurate as possible.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The German bombers which raid the island are Ju-87 Stukas. Stukas were dive-bombers, which start from thousands of feet in the air, diving straight down until they are almost on top of their target. They would not fly so close to the island, straight and level, bombing from a few hundred feet, as we see them do.

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...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Little Britain: (#3.4)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Ricordo Ancor

Please read the book instead.

Ok, it's a given that you cannot make a good movie from a good book. (Unless you make it a trilogy :-) But comparing the book Corelli's Mandolin to this movie it's clear how much has to be cut to fit a screenplay. The book is very funny in places, romantic (of course), dramatic. What's left of it in the film is inexplicable romance -- as other reviewers have remarked, it's unclear why she falls in love with the italian while her betrothed is still around, and I have no idea why this was changed from the book -- and some gratuitous gunning and bombing scenes, more than in the book which derives its power from not hammering on the obvious points. Whole characters are cut: Carlo has maybe 10 seconds screen time, while in the book he has a whole story line that runs several chapters.