Dark Eyes concerns Mastroianni's character Romano who is married to a wealthy Italian woman who he does not love, but instantly falls in love with a Russian woman he meets, and than later seeks in Russian to love. This means basically that Mastroianni whole performance is going to be a big romantic performance in his scenes of the past, as well as a tragic performance in his scenes in the present where he reflects on his past relationship.
If there is one thing I have noticed in all of his past nominated performances, Mastroianni always plays at least in some way a rather romantic character, as well as I notice Mastroianni is always a very physical performance. He always tends to act out in his performances in some way, and usually infuses at least some sort of playful quality in his performances.
Here Romano is always a rather playful fellow in the past scenes anyways, always doing some sort of special walk or dance that certianly is colorful. Mastroianni is very good at this because he is quite effective in displaying all of this playful parts of his performance as simply the flamboyant way Romano is, and makes even his walking like a bird chirping, seem natural to the character.
One of the most important aspects of Mastroianni performance is how charming he is in this film, and he is extremely charming. His face just simply glows in this film, and that work perfectly for the story. Due to the fact that he is exceedingly likable, it makes it far easier to follow him and enjoy with him through his romantic adventures.
Mastroianni is always constantly being charming as Romano, on this journey, which results in a large amount of scenes devoted to either his romantic gestures, or his actions needed to get his romantic ends. Not all of these scenes work completely, but Mastroianni is always trying hard to make each scene work anyway.
Some of the scenes most certainly do though like when he attempts to convince various rich Russians to sign his pass, to get to the woman he desires. He has to do it by showing his glass, off, which he does in various theatrical fashions, and each Mastroianni, is very entertaining, and most of all incredibly charming.
Well Mastroianni certainly makes us care for his romance, and romantic intentions, but he as well creates the right amount of sadness in his scenes during the present as well. Mastroianni shows his sad history in his face, where he was never able to finalize his love really. Mastroianni shows a distinct loss in Romano at the end, which is quite saddening due to the difference in that sad face, and the glowing face of before. I think this whole performance depends on if you find Mastroianni charming, I do so I therefore like this performance, it is not his best (I prefer when he is trying to murder for his romances) but it is most certainly a good performance of his.
