Italian rarity: Adua & her friends - hungry for love

Another Italian rarity, one I had not heard of until recently. How could a film featuring Simone Signoret (just after her ROOM AT THE TOP success and Academy Award) and Marcello Mastroianni (just after LA DOLCE VITA) be so unknown?, and also with French actress Emmanuelle Riva (just after HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR) who died last week aged 89. It was released in the UK at the time, titled HUNGRY FOR LOVE, which must have lured in the "dirty mac brigade".

ADUA AND HER FRIENDS (ADUA ET LA CAMPAGNE) When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.

This story of four prostitutes forced to fend for themselves when a new law closes the bordellos of Rome has the required gritty social realism, but there are scenes of happiness and humor too. They pool their savings to open a trattoria, but find they cannot get a license. A prominent fixer with connections obtains the license for them, on condition that they conduct their old business upstairs and pay him an exorbitant monthly fee. The women are not anxious to turn tricks for a living any longer and find joy in running the restaurant. The women long to settle down -- one (Riva) has a child, another meets a man who loves and wants to marry her. Only one  (Sandra Milo) is tempted to return to her old life. Signoret, the major character here and as wonderful as ever as the worldly-wise Adua - but she too is a fool for a no-good man. Enter Mastroianni as a glib car salesman, hustler and womanizer. While the trattoria is a success, it does not bring in the kind of money demanded by their "patron," which leads to conflict. In this genre, happy endings are rare.

The girls end up exposing their pimp who wants them to resume their old business, using the restaurant as a cover, and they are all exposed in the papers. Society does not give girls like them a second chance, The last scene,  with the girls back on the street in the rain, is suitably right and downbeat. Signoret as Adua though is so enterprising and attractive it is hard to believe her wet, bedragged prosititute would be overlooked for a younger girl.

Nicely directed by Antonio Pietrangeli, I have seen several of his lately, who died early at age 49. This one won Best Italian Film of the Year at Venice in 1961. (See I KNEW HER WELL. below).

1960 was certainly a year for prostitution in the cinema: NEVER ON SUNDAY with happy hooker Melina, BUTTERFIELD 8 and GO NAKED IN THE WORLD with Liz and Gina both taking a tumble at the end (at least Liz got that Oscar), THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, GIRL OF THE NIGHT, and Shirley Jones winning an Oscar in ELMER GANTRY - now there's ADUA AND HER FRIENDS!
It was of course that strange era of strip clubs and clip joints, as exemplified by EXPRESSO  BONGO, TOO HOT TO HANDLE, PASSPORT TO SHAME, THE WORLD TEN TIMES OVER, BITTER HARVEST, THE BEAUTY JUNGLE etc, and glamour girls like Diana Dors and Belinda Lee (SHE WALKS BY NIGHT, 1959) before the new permissiveness of the dawning Swinging Sixties. Bardot in Paris was mining a similar seam with steamy items like LOVE IS MY PROFESSION and LA VERITE.

Dolce Vita Confidential

Christmas has come early for me with this terrific read, a new book on that Roman La Dolce Vita era, which really began in 1958 and into the early Sixties, that terrific time when Rome was the centre of the movie universe. Lets quote the blurb:

"Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the film-makers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and free-wheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City.".

From the ashes of World War II, Rome was reborn as the epicenter of film, fashion, creative energy, tabloid media, and bold-faced libertinism that made Italian a global synonym for taste, style, and flair. A confluence of cultural contributions created a bright, burning moment in history: it was the heyday of fashion icons such as Pucci, whose use of color, line, and superb craftsmanship set the standard for womens clothing for decades, and Brioni, whose confident and classy creations for men inspired the contemporary American suit. Rome's huge movie studio, Cinecitta, also known as Hollywood-on-the Tiber, attracted a dizzying array of stars from Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra to that stunning and combustible couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who began their extramarital affair during the making of Cleopatra. And behind these stars trailed street photographers Tazio Secchiarioli, Pierluigi Praturlon, and Marcello Gepetti who searched, waited, and pounced on their subjects in pursuit of the most unflattering and dramatic portraits of fame.

Fashionistas, exiles, moguls, and martyrs flocked to Rome hoping for a chance to experience and indulge in the glow of old money, new stars, fast cars, wanton libidos, and brazen news photographers. The scene was captured nowhere better than in Federico Fellini s masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and the Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg. It was condemned for its licentiousness, when in fact Fellini was condemning the very excess, narcissism, and debauchery of Rome s bohemian scene.

Gossipy, colorful, and richly informed, Dolce Vita Confidential re-creates Rome's stunning ascent with vivid and compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation.

Shawn Levy is new to me, but I like his vivid prose and great use of language. He captures it all here, the era of Ponti and De Laurentiis, Loren and Lollo, Fellini and Antonioni ("the anti-Fellini" as Shawn says, but he highly rates the Antonioni films), plus visiting stars like Belinda Lee, the Burtons and all that scandal. Rome is at the centre of it all, with of course all that Italian fashion - those stylish mens' suits, the new scooters and the rise of Italian food.

Eternal Rome: all roads lead to it, it wasn't built in a day, and when in Rome you do as the Romans do. 

As Levy says the Italian movie renaissance began with a destitute man and his son looking for his bicycle, and follows with a newspaperman on a Vespa scooting an errant princess through the picturesque ruins, and ends with another newspaperman, among a throng of hungover aristocrats, staring at the bloated corpse of a sea monster on a wind-swept beach. 

Along the way the producers, directors, hucksters, hanger-ons, playboys and playgirls, pararazzi and others had a whole lot of fun, and a lot of it is captured here. 

So, for lovers of Italian movies, and Italy in general, and the international high life, there is a lot to enjoy here. I am now looking forward to getting Levy's take on London in the Swinging Sixties: READY STEADY GO!  

Sophia's Human Voice

I had been waiting to see that short film (20 minutes) which Sophia Loren made last year, aged 80, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti - THE HUMAN VOICE. Its the old Jean Cocteau play about a woman on the telephone to her lover who is deserting her, which was done previously by the likes of Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman. Now, here is Sophia doing it.   It had no screenings here but then I found out that it is a dvd extra on the Criterion Collection new issue of A SPECIAL DAY - Sophia's highly-regarded 1977 film with Marcello, directed by Ettore Scola (who also directed that terrific comedy THE PIZZA TRIANGLE with Marcello, Vitti and Giannini).

This A SPECIAL DAY turns out to be a perfect package for Loren completists - not only HUMAN VOICE but also a new interview with Scola and with Loren recorded this year (she is wearing red as usual) AND an hour long Dick Cavett interview (in two parts) from 1977 with both Sophia and Mastroianni (left, at the '77 recording) - we never saw those Cavett shows here so this is a rarity indeed.

Set against the backdrop of Naples, Italy, in 1950, this romantic drama tells the story of Angela, (played by Sophia Loren), a woman in the twilight of her years who rides the emotional roller coaster of her last telephone conversation with the man she loves as he is leaving her for another woman.

It is an enthralling little film, as Loren talks on the phone while her maid makes the weekly parmigiana dish for the lovers, only this time he is not turning up. The woman's desperation is obvious until she finally accepts the reality. Sophia rises to the occasion splendidly and is as compelling as ever. 
If it is her last performance it is a fitting cap to one of the great international careers. It is a nice gift too from a son to his mother, the one setting is intercut with snatches of happier times and seeing the older Loren looking out over the bay of Naples has its own resonance. 

A SPECIAL DAY too looks great here, I had not seen it for some time, both stars are wonderful here, Marcello playing a gay persecuted journalist and she the dowdy housewife, both are left behind in their apartment block as everyone goes to see the Mussolini parade - in 1930s Rome. A fascinating period piece. 
This Criterion issue is both Blu-ray and DVD, but only available for Region 1 - I had to order it from Barnes & Noble in New York. 

Pizza with Marcello, Monica, & Romy

A Marcello double-bill: Italian comedy with Monica and a ghost story with Romy ..

THE PIZZA TRIANGLE or JEALOUSY, ITALIAN STYLE or GRAMMA DELLA GELOSIA was a surprise hit in 1970 - Pauline Kael gave it a rave review too, but it had vanished without trace until recently. I should have been watching a new sub-titled disk but it has gone astray in the post (a replacement is on its way), so I am remembering it from back then. It shows Marcello Mastroianni and Monica Vitti as gifted farceurs as this trio of working class lovers clash, the third point of the triangle being Giancarlo Giannini. The prolific Ettore Scola, still writing and directing now, and who also directed Marcello and Sophia's hit A SPECIAL DAY in 1977, and Marcello as Casanova in THAT NIGHT IN VARENNES, fashions a hilarious tragedy as our bricklayer Marcello falls for flower-seller Monica, who then falls for pizza chef Giancarlo. Cue endless farce as they love, fight, bicker, and end up injured in hospital.

As IMDB puts it: An engrossing farce about a love triangle in modern Rome. Bricklayer Marcello Mastroianni meets flower-seller Monica Vitti at a political demonstration. He decides to ditch his fat, older wife for her. All goes well until a pizza, in the shape of a heart, arrives. It is sent to the girl by a young pizza-chef, played by Giancarlo Giannini. The pizza man becomes Vitti's lover, and poor Marcello goes mad with jealousy and attempts suicide, as do each of the other two at some point in this hysterical soap opera. The three lead performers, among the best that the Italian cinema has ever had to offer, are magnificent, as is the direction and comic timing by Ettore Scola creating a tragedy and comedy with political overtones and social satire.

Vitti and Marcello had not been this good in years (they were co-stars in Antonioni's LA NOTTE in 1961). Giancarlo Giannini of course went on to those towering performances in Wertmuller's SEVEN BEAUTIES, Oscar-nominated in 1975, and that chilly lead in Visconti's last, L'INNOCENTE in 1976 (both reviewed at Giancarlo  Giannini label), and again is still working now. 

FANTASMA D'AMORE (GHOST OF LOVE), 1981. 

A decade later, in 1981, we see an older Marcello with an older Romy Schneider - a year before her death (aged 43 in 1982). This for some reason, despite its two European stars, never played in London as I would have wanted to see it. It was only in Italian but I have now sourced a sub-titled print, 

I don't usually go for ghost stories, but this turned out to be a totally absorbing drama, with supernatural tones, which kept the interest, It is set in Pavia, a gloomy city as shown here, as Marcello's accountant catches the bus for a change, and an ill-looking, shabby woman boards the bus and does not have the fare, so he gives her a 100 lire coin. She thanks him and runs away and seems to know him. Then she rings him at home, where he and his wife lead separate lives. He did not recognise her, the woman on the bus, as she had changed so much due to illness, but she is Anna, his long lost love who has come back. He is astonished but agrees to meet her. 

She is now looking like her usual attractive self .... it turns out though she is married. Then he is told by a doctor friend that she died 3 years ago, which he cannot believe. They meet again and go out on the river in a boat, but she falls over and drowns .... there is also a mysterious murder where a man who abused Anna kills his aunt. It turns out Anna is unrepentant about that (before she falls into the river) .... then a body turns up, but it is not Anna but the man who abused her and who killed his aunt, who was also unpleasant to Anna. Is she a vengeful ghost bent on revenge? He has to find out and goes to see her husband, who also confirms that Anna died 3 years ago. Her aged servant also takes him to where she is buried ..... So what is the real truth.  The aged ill Anna turns up again on the bus - she keeps being drawn back to him as he keeps remembering her, and what does that odd priest know about it all. They have to part one more time ...... 

Ok, it is a ghost story, one can accept that. But what does one make of the final scene, where he returns to a large house (which may be a hospital or asylum) and the nurse in white uniform coming towards him is Romy/Anna too and she smiles as she leads him back in. It is all the ravings of a lunatic? or has he simply gone mad from it all? We have to make up our own mind .... Its an endlessly fascinating puzzle well directed by Risi, and made bearable by the stars, Marcello is fine as usual; Romy transcends the material and is a fascinating presence. They are a perfect team too, like Marcello with all the others: Sophia, Anouk, Gina, Anita, Monica, Silvana, Faye, Catherine, Brigitte, Belinda, Claudia etc. 

In due course, more Marcello rarities: with Silvana Mangano (DARK EYES, her last, in 1989) and maybe two dreadful ones, long unseen here: A FINE ROMANCE with Julie Andrews, and USED PEOPLE with Shirley McLaine, both from 1992. There is also something called MACARONI, another late '80s Marcello comedy also by Scola, with Jack Lemmon in crabby, annoying mode as an American in Naples (shades of AVANTI ?) ....I will have to resist that.
More Romy coming up too, and Catherine Deneuve.

Italian choices: Marcello & Jacques, Anna & Giulietta

CRONACA FAMILIARE (FAMILY DIARY), 1962. Finally, a look at Valerio Zurlini’s absorbing family drama with brilliant performances from Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin. Post-war Italy looks marvellous, as lensed by Giussepe Rottuno, and produced by Geoffredo Lombardo. Sylvie scores too as the grand-mother. It is all as marvellous as De Sica’s GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI (Italian label). Zurlini’s film is a melancholy meditation on two very different brothers, poor tubucular writer Enrico (Mastroianni) and the also ailing Lorenzo – Perrin is as effective here as he was in Zurlini’s GIRL WITH A SUITCASE or Bolognini’s LA CORRUZIONE, and of course this was Mastroianni’s great era too.. 

The downbeat story is totally affecting and leaves one in an emotional state. Did I say it looks marvellous? Its a perfectly restored print.

HELL IN THE CITY, 1959  (aka CAGED, Nella Citta L’Inferno) . Marvellous widescreen black and white drama with lots of comic moments from Renato Castellani and scipted by veteran Suso Cecchi D'Amico, which is a showcase for two of Italy’s greatest actresses Anna Magnani and Giulietta Masina. We are in a Roman prison, run by nuns. Masina is Lina, the timid newcomer, a variation on Masina’s CABIRIA – Lina is another lovelorn waif, seemingly a bit simple, who has been sent to prison for unknowingly aiding a robbery – a maid for a rich family, she was fooled by a man (Alberti Sordi doing a cameo) who got her to allow him into the house and then took her to the cinema while his accomplice carried out the robbery. Lina cries a lot and exasperates hardened criminal Egle – Magnani, forever in her black slip, as she dominates the screen. 

The other inmates are a varied bunch and we get involved in some stories. Renato Salvatori plays Piero, whom the nice young girl can see with the aid of a mirror, and there may be a happy ending for them. Lina finally leaves but will she be back? SPOILER AHEAD: Yes she does return and is now a hardened criminal, Egle is horrified to see how she has changed as Lina thanks her for teaching her the tricks of the trade. It is a satisfying conclusion and the two leads play it to the hilt. 

Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti as well as De Sica and Rossellini may have been the Italian great directors (along with Pasolini & Bertolucci and more), but its been fascinating catching up with those early films by Mauro Bolognini (1922-2001),which we like a lot here - LA NOTTE BRAVA, GIOVANI MARITI, CORRUPTION, SENILITA, METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO etc (as reviewed at Italian label). I still have to see Mastroianni & Cardinale in his highly-regarded IL BELL'ANTONIO, 1960, and Belmondo and Cardinale in LA VIACCIA, 1961., 

Another one, not available now, is his equally fascinating sounding FROM A ROMAN BALCONY (LA GIORNATA BALORDA), 1960, from a Moravia novel, with those attractive players Jean Sorel and Lea Massari. The trailer for it is on YouTube though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10i0K8iAT40

Bolognini also did episodes in those Italian compendium films I like: LE BAMBOLE (Four Kinds of Love - the hilarious and sexy Sorel & Lollobrigida episode) and LE FATA (The Queens), Sorel with Raquel Welch. 

Next Italian: Marcello and Romy in FANTASMA D'AMORE, 1981 - finally, a sub-titled print, and the Blu-ray of THE GREAT BEAUTY.  

Sophia back at Cannes, 2 ...

Top: Marcello and Sophia in the delightful TOO BAD SHE'S BAD in 1954, their first pairing, and with Vittorio De Sica acting as Loren's father. That was Sophia's break-out year, after toiling in Italian films since 1951 - in 1954 she was in WOMAN OF THE RIVER, TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, ATTILA, TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA and De Sica's GOLD OF NAPLES among several others - giving Gina and Silvana a run for their money, while not yet 20, while 1955 saw her in LUCKY TO BE A WOMAN (which I have in Italian to watch, and SCANDAL IN SORRENTO which does not seem available at all now, all before the American studios came calling.
Now in 2014, 60 years later, Marcello (1924-1996) in an iconic shot from Fellini's 8 1/2 is featured on this year's giant poster, and Sophia is back in town.
According to "The Daily Telegraph" Sophia's latest role, in LA VOX UMANA , tells the story of an older woman who has a final telephone conversation with the man she loves.

She received a standing ovation in Cannes for her masterclass, after being interviewed on stage.

"My life has not been easy," she said. "But I'm surrounded by people who like me, who love me, and I have to be very proud of my 80 years.

"I'm starting to count the hours, count the seconds; everything is important when you reach my age. Every so often you have to explode back into life." 
Left: My Sophia autograph from 1979 when she did a book signing in London at a packed Selfridges department store - it was a very crowded event but I managed to get my book signed and see Sophia up close. She of course looked amazing. 

Its actually September 20th when she turns 80, along with Brigitte Bardot also in September. Its good to see her back at Cannes, where she has been so many times, as per my last post on her, below, Sophia label, particularly as the main poster this year is her old pal and frequent co-star Marcello Mastroianni. Their 1964 De Sica classsic MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE has been restored and revived too. I love it. 
 
Left: a 1956 magazine with Sophia's SCANDAL IN SORRENTO on the cover; right: Sophia back at Cannes, aged 79 - 2014.
Plus:
Sophia and Marcello with Fellini. - 1963 perhaps.

Film Festival time ...

The awards season is hardly over before its film festival time as the 67th Cannes Film Festival starts in May. The poster this year (after Vitti, Dunaway and Monroe in recent years) features Marcello Mastroianni, and appropriately, Marcello's frequent co-star Sophia Loren is to hand too. This, from the official site:

• Guest of honor: SOPHIA LOREN

Sophia at Cannes, 1959

Award for Best Actress in 1961 and president of the jury in 1966, Sophia Loren is the guest of honor of Cannes Classics. She will be present at the screening of LA VOCE HUMANA (2014, 25mn), directed by Edoardo Ponti, which marks the occasion of her comeback to the movies. During the same evening MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (Matrimonio all'italiana) by Vittorio De Sica (1964, 1h42) will be screened in 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata. Restoration carried out in collaboration with Surf Film by Cineteca di Bologna and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage with contribution from Memory Cinema, at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. French distributor Carlotta.

Sophia Loren has also accepted to give a masterclass—a conversation which will take place on the stage of Salle Buñuel.

Great to see Sophia honoured here again, before her 80th birthday in September. I was trying to get London's BFI to do something, and we like MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (right) a lot, maybe the best of hers with De Sica.  

Left: Antonioni and Vitti at Cannes in 1960 the year L'AVVENTURA was such a sensation that it was booed initially ..

Sophia of course has been a frequent visitor at Cannes over the years, as below:

One of the many photos of her with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider at Cannes in 1962.

Jeanne Moreau, Delon and Sophia at Cannes in 1989.

also Alain and Sophia at a festival in Acapulco in 2011.  

And speaking of Cannes, heres Moreau with Antonioni and Fellini in 1960. 

and Monica Vitti, Alain and Romy, also 1960:

and Burt, Claudia and Alain when THE LEOPARD rolled into town ...

and Alain and Claudia at Cannes in 2010:

We have appreciated recent Cannes prize-winners like AMOUR and BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR, as reviews, 2000s label. 

Below: 1970s Cannes: Charlotte Rampling, Glenda Jackson, Cliff Robertson, Faye Dunaway, Helmut Berger in 1976:

Here is the link to the trailer for THE HUMAN VOICE, the 25 minute film by Edouardo Ponti, and interviews with mother and son at a screening at the Tribeca festival in New York.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jUOFH4kpGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwCUSkwiZ2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItJU7yLsfto

As The Daily Mail says: She's been a legendary icon of cinema for nearly 60 years, and even at 79 Sophia Loren still knows how to stun on the red carpet.

The Italian beauty wore a chic red pantsuit as she accompanied her director son Edoardo Ponti to a screening of his new film Human Voice on Monday at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The screen siren walked hand-in-hand with her 41-year-old son to promote the film in which she stars in her first movie role in 10 years.
How though can one market a 25 minute film? Will it be on television, or a dvd or ?

Marcello & that Italian glamour ...

Italian fashion and glamour take over London's V&A Museum with its latest exhibition: THE GLAMOUR OF ITALIAN FASHION 1945-2014. The lead sponsor, Bulgari, represents the opulence of the 1960s era displaying pieces from Elizabeth Taylor's  private collection,  including the spectacular platinum, diamond and emerald necklace which she received as an engagement present from Richard Burton. As Burton once quipped: "The only word Liz knows in Italian is Bulgari"!. The exhibtion runs until July 27 (vam.ac.uk) and is a riot of Italian fashion, prints and just sheer glamour. Left: Audrey in 1954 with shoe designer Salvatore Ferregamo.

CASANOVA 70. A colourful ‘60s comedy from Swinging Italy, directed by Mario Monicelli with another terrific performance from Marcello Mastroianni as the later-day Casanova who goes impotent if there is no element of danger involved in his liaisons. He is an army officer who can only perform when his life is in danger. It is another of Carlo Ponti’s assaults on the box office with the Latin lover supreme, Mastroianni, as a sort of Italian James Bond, seeking dangerous situations and beautiful women. 

These include Virna Lisi, Marisa Mell, Michele Mercier, Margaret Lee, Beba Loncar. Director Marco Ferreri plays the jealous husband of Mell …. It is all very 1965 (like Marcello’s THE 10TH VICTIM, review at Marcello label) as we travel from Italy to France and the Swiss Alps and a lot of silly fun now. As much fun as those mid-60s Italian episode films we like here, see Italian label: LE BAMBOLE, BOCCACCIO 70, LE FATE, GOLD OF NAPLES etc. or Jean Dujardin's OSS 117 capers.