Hacker Cinema
Divorce Italian Style
Divorzio all'italiana
1961 · Film · 104 min
Directed by Pietro Germi
Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.
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2 comments on Hacker News
Ironically this industry seems to only have come under scrutiny because the hired gun wasn't professional enough and/or took his job far too seriously, depending on your perspective.
In 2010, Takeshi Kuwabara was sentenced for the murder of his lover, Rie Isohata. What captured the world’s imagination was not the tragedy itself, but the fact that Kuwabara was a wakaresaseya – a professional hired by Isohata’s husband to break up their marriage.
Once Isohata learned of the deception, she angrily attempted to break off the relationship with Kuwabara. Unwilling to let her go, he strangled her with a piece of string. The following year, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
There is definitely a dark rom-com movie script to be made from this story.
Edit: I just remembered, there is an old Italian film which has a similar plot. It's called Divorce, Italian Style and is about a man who wants to divorce his wife, but can't due to the local laws. He spends the movie trying to get his wife to take a lover, so that he can shoot her "in a rage of jealousy" and get a reduced sentence for manslaughter. It's pretty funny, I highly recommend it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_Italian_Style
Cartrivision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision
> Cassettes of major movies such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Dr. Strangelove, High Noon, It Happened One Night, Divorce Italian Style, The Quiet Man, The Belles of St Trinian's, Two Rode Together and Brother Rat[4] were ordered via the initial 200-movie catalog at a retailer, delivered by parcel mail, and then returned to the retailer after viewing. These rental cassettes were red, approximately 7 inches (180 mm) high by 6.5 inches (170 mm) wide by 1.5 inches (38 mm) deep (however used the same videotape used today) and could not be rewound by a home Cartrivision recorder. Rather, they were rewound by a special machine upon their return to the retailer.[5] Other cassettes on sports, travel, art, and how-to topics were available for purchase. These cassettes were black, and could be rewound on a Cartrivision recorder. An optional monochrome camera manufactured for Cartrivision by Eumig could be bought to make home videos. A color camera was in the works but never materialized before CTI's demise.