Roman couturier Clelia (Eleonora Rossi-Drago) leaves the big city to work at a boutique in Turin. She moves into a hotel and makes several new friends, but is soon drawn into their extremely unpleasant lives. Clelia enters a doomed relationship with a poor architect's assistant (Ettore Manni), sees her new best friend Rosetta (Madeleine Fischer) commit suicide after being jilted by her married lover (Gabriele Ferzetti), and is eventually fired from her new job when her hysteria over Rosetta's
death interferes with her work. Clelia finally goes back to Rome, and viewers will not blame her a bit. Le Amiche, based on a 1949 article published in La Bella Estate ("Tre Donne Sole" by Cesare Pavese), is perhaps Michelangelo Antonioni's first great film. Juggling 10 characters with great aplomb, Antonioni and co-screenwriters Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Alba De Cespedes have created a rich, interlocking narrative which manages to rise above mere melodrama through careful attention to the ebb and flow of interpersonal relationships and a keen sense of balance. The fine supporting cast includes Valentina Cortese, Yvonne Furneaux, and Franco Fabrizi. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Antonioni's ability to use the screen's illusion of depth or the way he lends an eloquence to the space between characters is a marvel. How he has these people stand is so much more expressive than anything they say.
The expressive elegance of Antonioni's camera movements -- the way he glides around a scene, composing and recomposing the human figures within it to suggest psychological patterns and unacknowledged erotic connections -- still has the power to amaze.
Fortunately, relief for the navel-gazing conversations comes in the actual film craft -- photography, production design, music, control of pace and tone -- which reveals Antonioni's blossoming mastery.
Long before the he put Monica Vitti through the existentialist-ennui wringer, Michelangelo Antonioni gave the world this muted melodrama about urban females dealing with boorish men, banal modern life and the occasional suicide attempt.
An Antonioni film will frequently pose a riddle, and then never answer it; here the mystery of why Rosetta tries to kill herself becomes a pretense for the rest of the film.
Though seldom seen now, Antonioni's fourth feature is one of his greatest films, in which diverse plot strands, character psychology, and a masterful control of the camera are perfectly fused.
Without relying too heavily upon plot or story development, Antonioni delves deep beneath the exteriors of his characters to explore their mental makeup.
Based on Cesare Pavese's novella, this film examines the complex interplay and emotional intensity of relations between a bourgeois group of women. The pervasive cynicism within the novella is concentrated in Momina's character. The film also emphasizes the burgeoning and evolving role of the independent woman. This
early work shows the development of Antonioni's unique framing and narration methods, particularly in the beach scene. It's rare to have an ensemble cast deliver such strong performances!
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(DVD) (First Viewing, 9th Antonioni film)
It?s rather difficult to gage whether or not Le Amíche (1955) would be of any real interest if the young Michelangelo Antonioni had not gone on to become Michelangelo Antonioni? but for an early effort, it?s very, very good. It stands out among the
director?s filmography simply because for once there?s much too much?too many characters, too many plotlines to follow, the art direction too cluttered?and it carries its emotions on its sleeve in a way not seen elsewhere in an Antonioni film. The best and most memorable sequence, which depicts a group of bright young things at the beach quickly sinking into a bog of collective boredom and indifference, clearly precedes the ennui of L?Avventura that revolutionized cinema. One gets the very real sense of a great artist?s vision germinating and taking root, and the effect is exhilarating.
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