I fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963) is a five segment docudrama portraying the absurdities of real life situations in Italy circa 1963 due to the lack of a civilian divorce law. At that time, all issues regarding marriage were under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, which forbade divorce altogether. These five scenarios portray the real life implications of living in a society with no provision to terminate the marriage contract under any circumstances. Apparently, Italy didn't get its first civilian divorce law until 1970.
What is more amazing in this film than the difficulties of the people directly involved, is how Italian society in general supported this Catholic position by socially abusing the poor people who had sexual relationships, short term or long term, outside of marriage, trying to carry on with a somewhat normal life without being able to end their marriage.
This film is of great historical importance because it records a rather incredible social situation in Italy at a time when all the other Western European countries had a divorce law on the books for years at that point. This film is also an important historical record of the unreal amount of control that the Catholic Church had on all levels of Italian society at that time.
If the generally supportive attitude of Italian society regarding the Catholic prohibition against divorce as portrayed in this film is anywhere near accurate, then this must have been VERY controversial when it was released in Italy in 1963.
What I kept asking myself while I watched this film was: "How can people live this way???"
What is more amazing in this film than the difficulties of the people directly involved, is how Italian society in general supported this Catholic position by socially abusing the poor people who had sexual relationships, short term or long term, outside of marriage, trying to carry on with a somewhat normal life without being able to end their marriage.
This film is of great historical importance because it records a rather incredible social situation in Italy at a time when all the other Western European countries had a divorce law on the books for years at that point. This film is also an important historical record of the unreal amount of control that the Catholic Church had on all levels of Italian society at that time.
If the generally supportive attitude of Italian society regarding the Catholic prohibition against divorce as portrayed in this film is anywhere near accurate, then this must have been VERY controversial when it was released in Italy in 1963.
What I kept asking myself while I watched this film was: "How can people live this way???"
