A sweetheart of a film and a pleasing surprise. The film takes a nostalgic look at Rome's favourite recreation area, and director Luciano Emmer is up there with his Italian colleagues, Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, when it comes to visual poetry. Similar to People on Sunday and A Day in the Country, the plot comprises several episodes with several groups of people, Roman families, youth gangs and young love couples, who spend a Sunday at the beach of Ostia. It's meant to be a light-hearted romantic comedy, but the shadows of war are still visible in form of barbed wire and landmines in the beach sand. The mostly amateur actors perform unspent, sincere and strangely touching. The most notable performance comes from a young, bloodily fresh nature talent, Anna Baldini, Franco Interlenghi's crush here, who surprisingly has no other film listed on IMDb than this one. She reminds very much of a young Harriet Andersson in Bergman's first films. I'm wondering why she did not keep up and I hope she's okay ;). Unlike Marcello who obviously started off one of Italy's greatest film careers with his first noticeable appearance here. His role is a good, but ordinary one of a traffic cop who devotedly helps his struggling girlfriend. The film truly is a little gem with a wink and a big beating heart.
