La signora senza camelie (1953)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Michelangelo Antonioni

Writers:

Michelangelo Antonioni (story)
Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1981 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A new starlet is discovered and has ups and downs in Italian films. |

Plot Keywords:

Movie Star | Film Making | Showbiz | Actress | Agent

Cast

Lucia Bosé	...	Clara Manni
Gino Cervi	...	Ercole
Andrea Checchi	...	Gianni Franchi
Ivan Desny	...	Nardo Rusconi
Monica Clay	...	Simonetta
Alain Cuny	...	Lodi
Anna Carena	...	Clara's mother
Enrico Glori	...	Director
Laura Tiberti
Oscar Andriani
Gisella Sofio
Elio Steiner
Luisa Rivelli
Nino Dal Fabbro

Also Known As:

Camille Without Camelias
La dame sans camélia (France)
The Lady Without Camelias (USA)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Produzioni Domenico Forges Davanzati

Quotes:

Clara Manni: I'm desperate. I have nothing left, and I'm only 22.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Michelangelo Antonioni storia di un autore (1966) (TV)

Ciao, bella

A usually neglected Michelangelo Antonioni early film, "The Lady without Camelias" is a caustic story about a beautiful Milanese shop clerk (Lucia Bosé) who briefly becomes a movie star. She soon discovers than she is fenced in and humiliated, with a new and rich husband who can't tolerate her romantic scenes -- he prefers her to play Joan of Arc, with disastrous consequences.

It is actually one of the cruelest and most accurate portraits of studio film-making and the Italian movie world. As the film develops, it only gets better, the last scene being a little masterpiece of its own. Michelangelo Antonioni, who had already worked with Bosé on "Chronicle of a Love Affair", offered her the part of Clara after Lollobrigida (and, it is said, Loren) had turned it down, and she does wonders in one of her best parts on the silver screen. I have never been really touched by Antonioni's (much more famous, much more serious) Trilogy, but I have enjoyed this "minor" work. Compared to later Antonioni, the film feels crowded, yet some of the director's favorite themes are already there (most notably, misunderstanding between men and women, and masculine weakness). For those (like me) who always found Antonioni quite hard to follow in his later films, try this bitter tale in post-war Italy, I think it gives a different and lighter approach to this director's work.