Le Amiche: Difference between revisions

'''''Le amiche''''' ({{lang-en|italic=yes|The Girlfriends}}) is a 1955 Italian black-and-white [[drama film]] directed by [[Michelangelo Antonioni]] and starring [[Eleonora Rossi Drago]], [[Gabriele Ferzetti]], [[Franco Fabrizi]], and [[Valentina Cortese]]. Adapted from [[Cesare Pavese]]'s novel ''Tra donne sole'' (1949), the film is about a young woman who returns to her native Turin to set up a new fashion salon and becomes involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy women friends.<ref name="imdb">{{cite web|title=Le amiche |publisher=Internet Movie Database |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047821/ |accessdate=28 April 2012}}</ref> The film was shot on location in [[Turin]], Piedmont, Italy.<ref name="imdblocations">{{cite web|title=Locations for Le amiche |publisher=Internet Movie Database |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047821/locations |accessdate=28 April 2012}}</ref> ''Le amiche'' received the [[Venice Film Festival]]'s [[Silver Lion]] award in 1955, and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon Award for Best Director (Michelangelo Antonioni) and Best Supporting Actress (Valentina Cortese).<ref name="imdbawards">{{cite web|title=Awards for Le amiche |publisher=''Internet Movie Database'' |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047821/awards |accessdate=28 April 2012}}</ref>

Returning to her native Turin for the opening of a branch of a Rome fashion salon, the elegant Clelia ([[Eleonora Rossi Drago]]) discovers a young woman named Rosetta Savoni (Madeleine Fischer) near death in the next room of her hotel. Rosetta took an overdose of sleeping pills in an attempttrying to commit suicide. Clelia, who is alone in her hometown, befriends Rosetta and her three wealthy friends. Momina De Stefani ([[Yvonne Furneaux]]) is separated from her husband and easily replaces lovers. Nene ([[Valentina Cortese]]) is a talented artist becoming successful in her career; she is livinglives with a frustrated painter named Lorenzo ([[Gabriele Ferzetti]]) who envies the success of his wife's success. Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani) is futile. Clelia is attracted by Carlo (Ettore Manni), the assistant of the salon's architect, Cesare Pedoni ([[Franco Fabrizi]]), but he belongs to the working class living in a different social reality. When Momina and Clelia discover that the reason Rosetta tried to commit suicide was because she feltfell in love forwith Lorenzo, the cynical Momina encourages Rosetta to stay with him, even thoughalthough he and Nene were supposed to marry soon. TheThis advice leads to tragic consequencestragedy.

The script for ''Le amiche'' was adapted from a novel by [[Cesare Pavese]]. As such, itIt is one of the few adaptations Antonioni directed, the others being ''[[Blowup]]'' (based on a short story by [[Julio Cortázar]]),; ''[[The Mystery of Oberwald]]'' (adapted from [[Jean Cocteau]]'s play ''[[L'Aigle à deux têtes]]'', which Cocteau had [[The Eagle with Two Heads|previously adapted]] to film); and his final feature, ''[[Beyond the Clouds (1995 film)|Beyond the Clouds]]'' (1995), based on a book of his own short stories. Antonioni wrote the [[screenplay]] in collaboration with [[Suso Cecchi d'Amico]] and [[Alba de Céspedes y Bertini|Alba De Cespedes]].