Malena is the story of a young boy’s passion for a woman who struggles to live in a town that holds nothing but disdain towards her. It is Renato’s passion that allows the story to unfold in a sincere yet melancholic fashion. Malena is a war-widow. However, according to the paranoia of the town’s women, she is far too beautiful and young to be alone. False rumors rapidly spread about Malena’s potential suitors and sexual habits. As is the case in most small towns, and in this small Sicilian village, the rumors prevail over Malena’s actual chase lifestyle. It is only because of Renato’s obsessive behaviors, how he secretly watches Malena through a hole in a window or follows her around every corner, that the viewer is able to capture the extreme isolation that Malena is experiencing.

The film begins with rather comedic moments, as you see Renato experience the effects of his raging hormones, particularly after he sees Malena for the first time walking through the piazza. However, this sexual awakening occurs in conjunction with a strong political atmosphere as the Germans begin to occupy Italy. Malena’s voluptuous appearance not only stirs up hormones in pubescent boys, but also causes an uproar in the town. The men gawk at her while the women whisper the local gossip about her. Malena does not say much throughout the film. She simply walks quietly, avoiding eye contact with the towns people. Once her ailing father passes away, things get even worse for Malena. In addition to the gossip, the town’s women refuse to sell food or goods to her, while the men refuse to hire her for any job in fear of their wives. In order to survive through the rough times caused by the war and the scorn of the town, Malena becomes a prostitute.

Malena is represented as a victim of her own beauty in a society that thrives on traditional sexism and moral double standards. She is clearly idealized as a sexual object throughout the film. However, this portrayal is rather appropriate since the narrator of the story is her obsessed pubescent admirer, Renato. In telling the story, Renato describes an idealized portrait of a women and the familiar paradox of a virgin-whore. Although she was “virginal” in the sense that she was chaste after her husband’s disappearance, she was consistently referred to as a whore. Malena does not initially intend to prostitute herself like the town says. However, she does inevitably succumb to that decision. The social label that she undeservingly acquired was fulfilled by the end of the film. Social labels can often leave people with few alternatives. In particular, women have consistently had fewer choices than men, when faced with the struggle for survival. Malena, just like many other women, depended on her husband and her father for security and survival. Once both men were gone, she was left to fend on her own. Prostitution was her vehicle of survival, as it has been for many women.

Malena has very few pieces of dialogue in the film. Perhaps this is another idealized detail described through a man’s perspective. Nevertheless, there is sorrow and frustration in her eyes throughout the film. The double standard is evident when it is Malena that has adultery charges brought against her. Although she tries to defend herself, it is her lawyer who speaks for her and, ultimately, wins the case for her. Unfortunately for her, he insists on sex as the only form of payment. Renato’s account depicts this as the first step towards her spiral into prostitution.

The film attempts to address social problems and their consequences as well as the desires and dreams of people. It is an interesting depiction of the interaction of a boy’s obsession and a woman’s struggle to survive.