Le amiche (1955)

Director:

Michelangelo Antonioni

Writers:

Cesare Pavese (novel)
Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 November 1955 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Clelia comes from Rome to her native Turin, to set up a new fashion salon. On her first night, the woman in the next room of her hotel takes an overdose of pills. Clelia becomes involved with this woman, Rosetta, and three of her rich women friends, Momina, Nene, and Mariella. Momina is older than the others, and lives apart from her husband. Her current lover is Cesare, the architect of Clelia's salon. Nene is a talented ceramics artist, and lives with her fiance, the painter Lorenzo. Mariella is a flighty woman only interested in having a good time. Clelia becomes attached to Carlo, the architect's assistant, but the other women look down on him as he comes from a working class background. Momina, with the help of Clelia, discovers that Rosetta fell in love with Lorenzo as he was painting her portrait. Momina then encourages Rosetta to go after Lorenzo, even though he and Nene were supposed to marry soon.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Eleonora Rossi Drago	...	Clelia
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Lorenzo
Franco Fabrizi	...	Cesare Pedoni, the architect
Valentina Cortese	...	Nene
Yvonne Furneaux	...	Momina De Stefani
Madeleine Fischer	...	Rosetta Savoni
Anna Maria Pancani	...	Mariella
Luciano Volpato	...	Tony
Maria Gambarelli	...	Clelia's employer
Ettore Manni	...	Carlo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marcella Ferri

Also Known As:

The Girlfriends (UK) (USA)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Company:

Trionfalcine

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Money Programme (#3.3)" (1972)

Relationship, Friendship and Love

While in Turin for the opening and managing of a branch of a fashion salon from Roma, the elegant Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) finds the young Rosetta Savone (Madeleine Fischer) near death on the next room of her hotel after taking an overdose of sleeping pills trying to commit suicide. Clelia, who is alone in her hometown Turin, befriends Rosetta and her wealthy friends Momina De Stefani (Yvonne Furneaux), who is separated from her husband and easily replaces lovers; Nene (Valentina Cortese), a talented artist in ascension in her career married to the frustrated painter Lorenzo (Gabriele Ferzetti) that envies the success of his wife; and the futile Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani). Meanwhile, Clelia feels attracted by Carlo (Ettore Manni), the assistant of the salon's architect Cesare Pedoni (Franco Fabrizi), but he belongs to the working class living in a different social reality. When Momina and Clelia discover that the reason why Rosetta tried to commit suicide is because she felt in love for Lorenzo, the cynical Momina encourages Rosetta to stay with Lorenzo with tragic consequences.

Michelangelo Antoniani is the filmmaker of the troubled relationships and conflictive emotions and "Le Amiche" is a story about friendship and love disclosing female characters from the upper class that spend most of their times together with their empty and shallow lives. Rosetta is a needy and naive rich girl that falls in love for a painter that painted her portrait and attempts for commit suicide for the non-corresponded love. Momina is selfish, cynical and materialist that does not attach to any man and does not respect her friends. Nene is an insecure woman that sacrifices her promising career to stay with her unfaithful husband in crisis, forgiving him in the end. Mariella is simply a futile woman. Clelia is the opposite, a strong woman that came from the working class and has had a social ascension due to her work. Eleonora Rossi Drago, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux and Valentina Cortese give magnificent performances in the development of these rich characters, supported by great dialogs and wonderful cinematography in black and white. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazi): Not Available