La califfa (1970)

Director:

Alberto Bevilacqua

Writers:

Alberto Bevilacqua (novel), Alberto Bevilacqua (screenplay)

Stars:

Romy Schneider, Ugo Tognazzi, Massimo Farinelli

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Romy Schneider	...	Irene Corsini detta 'La Califfa' -la bella e fiera vedova di un operaio ucciso
Ugo Tognazzi	...	Annibale Doberdò - il proprietario della fabbrica
Massimo Farinelli	...	Giampiero Doberdò figlio
Marina Berti	...	Clementine Doberdò - la moglie di Annibale
Guido Alberti	...	Il monsignore
Roberto Bisacco	...	Bisacco
Gigi Ballista	...	Il principe industriale
Massimo Serato	...	L'industriale fallito
Eva Brun	...	La moglie dell'industriale fallito
Luigi Casellato	...	Il questore
Ernesto Colli	...	Un operaio
Ugo de Carellis
Enzo Fiermonte	...	L'operaio sindacalista
Salvatore Lago
Giorgio Piazza

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | based on novel

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

1 January 1971 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Lady Caliph

Filming Locations:

Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fair Film, Labrador Films, Les Films Corona

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

User Reviews

Wonderful soundtrack but the movie is not up to scratch.

The precedent user was right:the score by Ennio Morricone -who remains one of the greatest of all- is tuneful ,splendid,perfect.It's when you deal with the movie that things go wrong..

First of all,Romy Schneider -an actress I like very much though- is miscast as an Italian woman.In her diary published in the late eighties the actress wrote:"the filming had only begun when I had to strip naked for a love scene (...)I was interested in playing a very different character(...)Bevilacqua,the scriptwriter had not the slightest idea of what a movie was .We were completely lost,all of us ,even Ugo Tognazzi." The main problem,IMHO,is that the film would like to be realistic -a depiction of the factories strikes in Italy- and it has also intellectual pretensions.Sometimes it makes me think of Pasolini's "teorema"(1968),Romy Schneider's "Califfa" replacing the Terence Stamp's angel.The scenes between Tognazzi and Schneider seem unreal.

It is a dated movie ,it captures the end of the sixties zeitgeist,all content and no form. But once again,the score is worth the price of admission.