Die freudlose Straße

I wonder why there's no review of this film up to now, not only because it's a very good movie. Beside of that, it features one of the biggest female movie-stars of the 20th century, Gina Lollobrigida, in an early leading role, in the prime of her beauty. To my taste, she appears here much more impressive than in later and better-known roles. The underlying story ('La Romana')was a big success in the USA in the year 1947, and millions of it were sold worldwide, was written by one of the most famous 20th-century-Italian writers, Alberto Moravia. The film itself is a late example of the equally famous Italian neorealistic style, with a depressing finale, regarding its heroine.

The story is set in the Italian fascist era (1935), full of tension, and very atmospheric. The streets, cars and people of the later post-war-Rome (1954, when the film was made)are shown in gritty black-and-white. In a sequence playing within a Cinema, film within film, one sees marching fascist Italian troops on the screen, giving a feeling as if you were a cinema-visitor yourself, and then the propaganda is suddenly cut short by an action of anti-fascists. In spite of a scene like this, the film centers on the individual aspects of the protagonists, rather than on the underlying political aspects.

Bearing in mind that Alberto Moravia's novel 'La Romana' was on the Index of Forbidden Works, any attempt to adapt it for film was bound to be fraught with difficulties. I still have my dog-eared Penguin copy and to be fair to director Luigi Zampa he has done his best to be as faithful as possible to the text. The author collaborated on the script but even with the changes they were obliged to make the film still faced opposition from the Catholic authorities. The controversy certainly did the film no harm at the box office and its first showing at the Venice Film Festival became a media circus.

The critical reaction while not hostile, seemed to suggest that the film had failed to meet expectations and the more positive reviews were saved for Gina Lollobrigida as the title character.

This is certainly La Lollo's most challenging role since that of Gemma in 'La Provinciale' for Mario Soldati and Luigi Zampa has drawn from her what I think is her best performance.

Byron called Beauty 'the fatal gift' and this certainly applies in the case of Adriana. Her mother hopes that her daughter's good looks will bring her a rich husband and security but all it seems to bring is bad fortune and the attentions of Gino who is a rat, Mino, one of Moravia's archetypal intellectuals who is consumed with guilt about his moral cowardice, a fascist official named Astarita and last but not least Sonzogno, a brutish thug.

Daniel Gélin as Mino drew mostly negative reviews but has a difficult role and succeeds in arousing our sympathy for his weakness rather than our contempt. The fascist Astarita is far more sympathetic here than in the novel and Raymond Pellegrin gives an excellent performance. Mention must be made of Pia Piovani who impresses as Adriana's bitter, disillusioned mother.

As expected in Italian cinema there is plenty of dubbing going on but it is generally seamless. There is a strong score by Enzo Masetti.

Zampa has chosen to concentrate on the protagonists here rather than the society and the era around them. This is set in the 1930s but I didn't really have a sense of 'being there'. In this respect it is disappointing but is redeemed by Zampa's obvious skill with actors and the committed performances of his cast.

Three exceedingly positive aspects to LA ROMANA: sound direction by Luigi Rampa, excellent B&W photography, and superb performances from Lollobrigida, Piovani, and Gelin.

The dramatic impact on Adriana's life caused by a philandering husband who promises her marriage, only to get found out as a thief, and causes her to descend to the status of prostitute, is well examined- The character of Astarita, played by Raymond Pellegrin, is particularly cynical in light of his lofty position as medical doctor in the days of the Duce.

The exchanges between La Lollo and Piovani, as her knowing mother, who wants the best for her daughter and sees a great deal of promise in her, only to throw it all away, are both hard and a real delight to watch.

Credible script.

LA ROMANA is no masterpiece but it is definitely worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of the Italian cinema.

With the "Duce" still very much in charge of Italy, the young "Adriana" (Gina Lollobrigida) is coasting along in life, using her good looks to attract the attention of "Gino" (Franco Fabrizi) and hoping that they will marry. A casual meeting with aspiring Fascist "Astarita" (Raymond Pellegrin), however, soon puts that plan on the fire - especially as he clearly has designs her himself. She's a bit despondent and turns to the game to make her living. At times she comes across as almost desperate for love, for attention - yep, even sex, but perhaps when she meets "Mino" (Daniel Gélin) she might find some sort of purpose in life? Well the fly in that ointment is that he's a committed anti-Fascist and is known to the authorities. With him taking risks on a daily basis and her in possession of some fairly profound news, is there any hope for redemption for her and happiness for them? This is certainly one of Lollobrigida's better efforts as she tackles this role with quite a degree authenticity. There's virtually no glamour for her to hide behind and she delivers with a rawness as the young woman whose options are largely limited by her looks - a situation common to many women at the time. The choices of men her character makes are maybe not the best but both Gélin and Pellegrin provide solid foils as the story develops juggling romance with elements of politics and crime. It's touching at times, steadily paced and well worth a couple of hours, I'd say.

Grim pastiche of the still overrated misogynist Moravia, starring the incompetent Lollo, whose hallmark pouting manipulations here play neatly into the hands of the male-dominated Italian film industry, then and now. Zampa's emasculated recreation of the unspeakable horrors of Fascism is shameful: a weak scenography by Bassani and lazy transition from an indifferent book, each scene delivered in bite-sized morsels for a smug semi-illiterate Italian audience enjoying the so-called economic boom, now feeling exonerated from their abject mass collaboration with the regime barely a decade earlier. Watchable only for Gélin and the interiors and exteriors of a Rome before the country's colonisation by American-style consumerism in the 1960s, replacing one regime with another.