By 1964 Sophia Loren had been a longtime favorite of LIFE readers, and Marcello Mastroianni was having his moment too. In its Jan. 18, 1963 issue the magazine had introduced the star of Fellini films such as La Dolce Vita to readers with a breathless seven-page story headlined, “A Symbol of Something For All the Girls….And a Box-Office Smash (With Subtitles).”
So when Loren and Mastriano co-starred in the romantic comedy “Marriage Italian Style,” LIFE dispatched photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt—who had already taken so many great photos Loren—to document the moment.
The resulting photo set includes two of the best-selling images in the LIFE print store. The popularity of one is no mystery—it is a full-body shot of the voluptuous Loren in a sheer nightgown. In 1966, when LIFE ran a career tribute to the photography of Eisenstaedt, it placed that racy photo of Loren on the cover of the magazine.
The other popular photo from this shoot is one of Mastroianni, and its appeal is more of the cheeky variety. The photo shows the debonair actor in an unlikely pose— sitting on a bidet, smoking a cigarette.
In Marriage Italian Style, Mastroianni and Loren play a star-crossed couple. When their characters meet, she is a prostitute, and she becomes his longtime mistress—with aspirations to become his wife. The movie takes dramatic turns on its rocky way to happily ever after. LIFE’s review of Marriage Italian Style summed it up thusly: “Sophia turns from a high-spirited whore with girlish dreams into a battler for hollow respectability and finally into some kind of earth mother fighting for her young. Mastroianni meanwhile slips unobtrusively and cleverly from a youthful roué to a wistful one, and what began as a noisy, hokey clash of wills becomes a wry, touching conflict in which the only victor is humanity—which nobody can depict in its fine fallibility quite so well as the Italians.”
The movie received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Foreign Language Film, and the other for Best Actress (Loren lost out to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins). Loren and Mastroianni, who made many films together, are now regarded as of the great screen pairings in the history of cinema. Meanwhile Eisenstaedt’s winning images from the set continue to delight as they pay tribute to the king and queen of Italian cinema.
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren in a brothel scene from the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style,’ directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren in a brothel scene from the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren sitting on director Vittorio de Sica’s lap during the making of the 1964 film Marriage, Italian Style.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
