I have seen reviewers print that Malena'a brutal bashing scene seemed excessive and out of place in the film. It is however an accurate portrayal of World War 2 era Sicily and it's attitudes towards morality. I come from a Sicilian background and this scene seems consistent with stories passed to me by my mother of the period this flm is set. Sicily has a very violent history, perhaps more than people today really understand.
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I am also Sicilian. And I do not think this is what would've actually happened to someone like Malena. Italians and Germans were allies after all.
And the men's reaction bit is also realistic. My grandfather drove a motorcycle in the Italian army, and he would tell me stories about how he would go up to pretty women and start revving his motorcycle to try and impress them.
I hate to tell you this but it happened all over Europe; East, West, North and South. Many suffered worse, up to and including lynching.
Read Keith Lowe's book "Savage Continent", which goes into a lot of detail about the fate of such people.
Many Italians did not like Mussolini and Hitler. When the allies drove the Germans out they were only too happy to take revenge.
shareI think it's much safer to say it was a lot more complicated than that. Italy didn't just automatically turn against Mussolini and the partisan activity went on well after the end of the war. Germany didn't suddenly become anti-Hitler either. Two other books which are very good on this are "The End" by Ian Kershaw and "After Hitler" by Michael Jones. But as far as Italy was concerned, the reprisals were countered by the fact that so many government officials remained former fascists and this was the case well into the 1950s. That is why the bloodletting went on so long. Sure, the people welcomed the invaders with open arms but not everywhere and not for the reasons you might think. Sure; revenge was extracted on Mussolini and Clara Petacchi were killed and hung up from a petrol station but that was only a superficial example of what was going on in the rest of Italy. Again, I urge people to read "Savage Continent".
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