Melbourne Cinematheque season on Italian screenwriter
Suso Cecchi D'Amico, who worked with pretty much all the top Italian directors from the neorealist period onward, including some of the big names here. Her list of credits is outstanding but the six here are:
L'Innocente - First up Visconti, this adaptation of a work by D’Annunzio (the fascist prick) with a philandering husband tormented by jeaoulsy when his wife falls in love and becomes pregnant. it is not quite in the same league as the best of either Visconti or D'Amico's films but it there are some top set pieces.
La Signore Senza Camele - An early Antonioni film, about an actress who star takes off only to be used by the men in her life, as well as by the film industry. It's not one of the films that he's know for but frankly I found it and the other Antonioni film in the season (below) far more engaging and interesting than his classics. There are characters with real emotions here.
Violent Summer - this is really top notch, it is 1942 and Jean-Louis Trintignant is the son of a fascist boss trying to avoid the war. He meets an older war widow Eleonora Rossi Drago and they fall in love and begin an affair. The disconnect from the war that is in their lives in the resort town is paralleled by their love affair - the tension is ratcheted up until it all comes crashing down.
I Magliari - hard to say how this film might be classified, there is a certain neorealist feel of the story of Italian salesmen struggling to make ends meet in postwar Germany, but it also has elements of black comedy and drama. Belinda Lee is excellent as the wife of the German boss who falls in love with the naive Italian worker.
Le Amiche - the most enjoyable Antonioni I've yet seen, again it has real people interacting, revolving around the lives and loves of a set of five women. Eleonora Rossi Drago stars again as the visitor from Rome that gets involved with a set of friends in Turin, and with the drama starting from the attempted suicide of one of the group.
The Passionate Thief - Great farcical comedy starring Anna Magnani, Toto and Ben Gazzara. The action all takes place on new years with Magnani (a bit part actress) trying to have a good night, Totò is her old comrade who's been recruited to assist Gazzara pick pockets. There is a whole series of misunderstandings, mistakes, and circumstances that cause all three to go from one unfortunate situation to another.