This film has a sense of authenticity, and sure enough I soon discovered that the director as a young man knew Satoria Torelli in Rome where the famous film couturier, Piero Tosi, was director. And Taviani's son directed the film's music. And there are references aplenty in the film to the differences between plays, films and opera. Moreover the film's central setting is real, the workroom of the seamstresses among operatic costumes, with real little drawers of beads and cottons, real huge rolls of brilliant shiny fabric. And the central costume designer is portrayed as making a huge mistake with a major costume, just like she would in real life. More than that, the film made me think of the various settings where women work in settings where their work is ignored or trivialised...... ....secretarial offices, housemaids in hotels, and in this case, seamstresses. The camaraderie among the women in the film seemed exactly right to me. Noisy, bawdy, sarcastic, but beneath the surface there was real caring for the women among them whose lives were not going well. The film has faults...occasional silly singing, half realised narrative sequences, some cliches (especially the violence of the husband of one of the women) but overall this is the sort of film I like to see. There was something real and true about it. Interesting and engaging.
