Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92039 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-29
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Mira Sorvino is adorable in this lovely adaptation of the 17th-century comedy Triumph of Love. When a princess (Sorvino) sets out to return her throne to its rightful heir, the rightful heir turns out to be a handsome young man (Jay Rodan). Of course, the princess falls madly in love with him. Unfortunately, he's been trained by his mentor, an angry philosopher (Ben Kingsley), to hate the princess (he even practices archery using her picture as the target). To set things right and win her heart's desire, the princess dresses herself as a man and--switching from one disguise to another--begins wooing everyone in the philosopher's household, starting with his spinster sister (Fiona Shaw). Though the transformation from the stage to the screen is pretty straightforward, the costumes and sets are beautiful. Sorvino holds her own against British stage vets Kingsley and Shaw. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

An undiscovered delight...
I, frankly, had never heard of this movie, despite the stellar cast and director. My wife brought it home from Blockbuster, and I sat down with low expectations -- here would be yet another stiff period piece, a la Howard's End, I thought. Boy, was I wrong. This risque farce is barrels of sweet fun. I laughed harder than I have in a long time, and just fell for the sweet, sultry performance of Mira Sorvino. She lights up the screen.

Bravo!

Behold the power of cheese!
The silly, dopey, and terrifically fun "Triumph of Love" is the latest point on Mira Sorvino's bizarre career trajectory. A sweet treatise on the power of love to transform and enlarge us, the film features gorgeous visuals, sumptuous costumes, and the
hopelessly beautiful Jay Rodan as Sorvino's love interest. The supporting cast includes the always welcome Ben Kingsley as a stoic philosopher, Fiona Shaw as his buttoned down sister, and a stunning European Villa where our story unfolds.

The plot concerns the machinations of a young princess (Sorvino), who, anxious to right a family wrong, tracks down the sole survivor of the previously disposed royal family. She finds him, he looks like Rodan, and she crashes head first into love. The problem, though, is this; he has been raised to hate all women in general, and the princess in particular, by his guardians, the aforementioned Kingsley and Shaw. Naturally, then, the only thing for Sorvino to do is soften them both up by making them fall in love with her (while disguised as a boy!). That way, she gets to stay near her prince, while simultaneously wrecking her revenge on them for poisioning his heart.

Of course, everything goes completely awry, feelings are hurt, hearts are broken and souls are opened up before love does indeed triumph in the end. The message here is that it does not matter so much who you love as that you open yourself up to the experience, and that even love thwarted carries the rewards of joy and inspiration. It is a beautiful message for a beautiful looking film, and Sorvino in particular simply glows with the idea of it.

A well-made movie, perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon, "The Triumph of Love" is an unexpected treat and well worth seeking out.

18th Century French Farce played to a fare-thee-well!
Another movie missed in the theatrical release, this DVD caught the eye because of the sterling cast and the fact that Bernardo Bertolucci was connected to it. Happy accident! TRIUMPH OF LOVE is a fine period piece which, though thoroughly cinematic, plays (before an occasionally glimpsed modern day dress audience in the garden)as a theater piece. The oft-used altered identity technique (woman dresses as man dresses as woman etc depending on the object of the game of courtship)is well traversed by Mira Sorvino who manages to stand tall (!) in the company of such fine British actors as Ben Kingsley (as a delicious fudd of a philosopher who can make a 180 degree turnaround of character a true acting feat), Fiona Shaw, Rachel Stirling, and Jay Rodan. The settings are beautiful, the costumes creatively correct and the music score is additive. The only flaws are in the rather glichy editing that makes the movie a bit broken at times. But overall, this is a fine outing courtesy of Bernardo Bertolucci. Highly recommended.