History Film / Malena

* BoyishShorts: Twelve-year-old Renato angsts that he's the only one amongst his friends who still wears short pants.

* PowerWalk: The film has a very similar sequence three times, each time showing Malena walking down the main street and everyone looking at her. The trope happens in the final sequence, when [[spoiler: Nino and Malena boldly walk together, not giving a single damn to the townspeople]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Renato is about fourteen and thus has several sexual fantasies about Malena. Her first scene even explicitly shows him getting a boner as she walks by.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: Ohhh boy, Renato and his schoolmates should provide the page image.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Malena dyes her hair red when she becomes a prostitute.

* PrecociousCrush: Renato's obsession with his teacher Malena, since she's a grown, married woman and he's just an adolescent boy.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Since the beginning you have the feel that Malena has no interactions with almost nobody in town (especially the women) and she leaves her house only to visit her elderly father.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler: Malena's husband Nino couldn't care less of what she did to survive the war and at the end he's boldly walking down the street with his beloved wife.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The townswomen let Maléna back into their lives, she's reunited with her husband, and Renato finally talks directly to her... before she walks out of his life forever. The narrator (Renato as an adult) then tells us that he's known many women who asked him not to forget her, but the only woman who never asked - Maléna - is the only one he's never forgotten.]]

* ChivalrousPervert: Renato tries to defend Malena's honour a couple of times despite lusting over her. Notably he gets revenge on a woman who was gossiping about Malena by peeing in her pocket book.

* FisherKingdom: Played realistically - because everyone thinks Malena is an adultering whore, she can't find a job and eventually has no other choice but play along that perception just to feed herself.

* HiddenDepths: Renato's father, [[{{Jerkass}} jerkass]] as he is, is hinted to disapprove of fascism, given that he insult Mussolini.

* ImagineSpot: Renato has a hilarious one where he imagines his teacher is Malena and says "is it true you're getting married" only for the elderly woman to angrily throw him out of the class.
* KarmaHoudini: The women of the town who beat up Malena in public and her lawyer who rapes her. There are also former Fascist dignitaries and deputies, who are left untouched, while mocking [[spoiler: Nino, who served as a soldier and lost his arm while they were living comfortable lives thanks to political connections]]

* MaleGaze: Justified since Renato's lust over Malena is a huge plot point, and his sexual awakening is key.
* MoodWhiplash: The entire film goes back and forth between growing-up comedy and serious war drama. Most notably the announcement that the war is over is a happy scene that turns savage when [[spoiler: the women of the town decide to humiliate and beat Malena]].

* PietaPlagiarism: Played for laughs when Renato is "possessed" and his mother holds him this way in the church. Renato's father even lampshades it looks like a recreation of Pieta for the poor, having enough of humiliation already.

* SexAsRiteOfPassage: Downplayed. Renato's father is very open about his son being HormoneAddledTeenager who simply needs to get laid to stop acting like a weirdo. Eventually he's so sick of the boy's antics, he arranges for him in the local brothel.

** Malena when she's lying on the bed with her breasts exposed. Except she's being raped by her lawyer.

* FanDisservice: [[spoiler: Maléna is dragged into the middle of the town in her lingerie and beaten savagely. She's half nude but also covered in blood and crying.]]

* WomanInWhite: Used early on with Maléna to distinguish her from the other women.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler: Malena's husband Nino could care less of what she did to survive the war and at the end he's boldly walking down the street with his beloved wife.]]

* MoodWhiplash: The announcement that the war is over is a happy scene that turns savage when [[spoiler: the women of the town decide to humiliate Malena]].

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* AbusiveParents: Renato's father frequently hits him.