The Most Wonderful Moment : Plot, Cast Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Most Wonderful Moment

1957 film

21 March 1957 (1957-03-21)

Running time

92 minutesCountryItalyLanguageItalian

The Most Wonderful Moment (Italian: Il momento più bello) is a 1957 Italian drama film directed by Luciano Emmer.^[1]

This drama deals with natural childbirth, and was described as "clinically pure, informative, edifying and, on occasion, tenderly dramatic". Pietro is in love with a nurse; they keep their affair secret until she falls pregnant. Worried that marriage will affect his career, she prepares for the upcoming childbirth.^[2]

Plot

In the maternity ward of a large Roman hospital, we witness the secret love between the young doctor Pietro Valeri and the nurse Luisa Morelli. Pietro has difficulty in making a career and hesitates to marry Luisa as he does not know what future he could offer her.

The situation seems to get worse when Luisa realizes she is expecting a baby. Pietro, always irresolute, seems to be in favor of a clandestine abortion, a solution that the girl refuses to consider. Luisa leaves the hospital and moves to her former colleague Margherita, who has set up on her own as a midwife. Margherita and Luisa organize pre-baby courses in which a revolutionary method of painless childbirth is developed, a technique learned in the same hospital where they worked. One of the young women assisted by Margherita is hospitalized in the ward where Pietro works and actually manages to give birth in conditions of relative serenity, transforming what mothers always considered "the worst moment" into the “most beautiful moment”: the episode comforts the doctor, who finally decides to marry Luisa and assist her in her maternity leave.

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni as Pietro Valeri
Giovanna Ralli as Luisa Morelli
Marisa Merlini as Margherita Rosati
Bice Valori as Carla
Memmo Carotenuto as Ticket collector
Ernesto Calindri as Director of clinic
Riccardo Garrone as Dr. Benvenuti
Emilio Cigoli as Morelli
Giuliano Montaldo as Don Grazini
Sergio Bergonzelli as Mister Mancini
Vittorio André as Prof. Grimaldi (as Victor André)
Clara Bindi as Matilde Fontana
Edda Soligo as Head of home

References

^ "NY Times: The Most Wonderful Moment". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
^ Weiler, A. H. (1 June 1959). "Movie Review - Il Momento Piu Bello - Screen: Natural Birth; The Most Wonderful Moment' Bows - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2009.