Amanti

One of those late, very sensitive and poignant Vittorio de Sica films, concentrating entirely on a personal relationship. I always regarded Faye Dunaway as one of the most beautiful actresses ever, but here she surpasses herself both in beauty and acting. Mastroianni is always reliable and original, and he actually matches Faye Dunaway more than well, although this is not Sofia Loren. There are two additional factors making this film extra remarkable, the fact that the script writer is Cesare Zavattini, who wrote all of de Sica's best films, and the overwhelmingly beautiful music by Manuel de Sica, his son, I suppose, that veils the film in a silken bandage of urgent soothing beauty, just like in his last film "The Voyage" with Sofia Loren and Richard Burton. The locations are among the loveliest in north eastern Italy, by the coast north of Venice and in a central hill station in the Dolomites. The story might seem superficial at first, especially if you don't know anything and haven't read anything about it, as the casual relationship by hap doesn't seem to amount to anything special, but it does. The cars play a prominent part in this film, as Mastroianni manufactures car accident protections, and there are several risky car journeys. which eventually must lead to some concern. Also the end is typical of Vittorio de Sica - all has been said, and life will continue anyway whatever happens - even the greatest passions are only episodes, even though they sometimes are marked unforgettable by the circumstances.

To be honest, I am a fan of this type of Italian movie and I have been to the Villa in outside of florence where the opening was shot.There is a certain feeling for this type of Late 60's Italian movie that one has to feel good about. I adored the soundtrack and If anyone know of any disk that "Ella" sang that title song, Please let me know

Love made Faye Dunaway an exquisitely beautiful woman. She and her costar of A Place for Lovers, Marcello Mastroianni, had a years-long affair during and after the filming. While this is a love story, and you could argue that she was merely acting, we've seen her in other love stories. She's never looked at anyone the way she looked at Marcello. Although Faye endured great pain, you can clearly see from this film that her love ran very deep. This was one of the rare performances of her career that wasn't a "Faye Dunaway performance." She wasn't cool, collected, and reserved. She was warm, vulnerable, and wearing her heart on her sleeve. Was her Chinatown typecast all a façade? Could she have had a completely different career if she were allowed to take on more roles like this and Hurry Sundown, her film debut from the previous year?

The plot of this film is extremely similar to 1977's Bobby Deerfield, but I've never read that the latter was a direct remake. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or, like when Buono Sera, Mrs. Campbell got turned into Mamma Mia!, the original never got credit. Marcello is a racecar driver, and Faye is terminally ill. She summons him to her chalet for a brief affair without telling him why she wants one last chance at passion or why it has to be cut short. Obviously, this is a tearjerker, and all the more so when you watch it now, knowing that Marcello didn't leave his wife in real life and run off with Faye. They certainly make a beautiful couple, and it just goes to show you that love can transform a person's appearance. In the following year's The Arrangement, Faye was paired with Kirk Douglas, whom she couldn't care less about. It was one of those detached performances, and she didn't look very attractive. In A Place for Lovers, she looked downright beautiful.

First, O.K., this film is a guilty pleasure. So I'm an inveterate romantic. So kill me.

There is one scene when Faye says to Marcello, "I don't want your pity." He responds by saying, increasingly heatedly, "Pity? PITY? WHAT pity?" Then he throws her down on the ground and kisses her, saying, "I LOVE you! I LOVE you! I LOVE you!" Now, c'mon. If you're a romantic (and you probably aren't), you'll adore this scene. Others will become nauseous. So sorry.

Sometimes a girl has to have her fantasies. Apologies to all you realists and intellectual cinemaphiles.

Italian upper class environment in the 1960's: beautiful houses and interiors, women of course also and so well dressed but, as in Dolce Vita, bored and wont to indulge in ambiguous erotic games - exciting for some and decadent for others. Mastroianni and Dunaway meet in such a venue before the evening festivities begin and fall in love and escape to the mountains at Cortina. The director Vittorio De Sica keeps the film viewer at a distance by introducing a "third party", the breathtakingly beautiful mountain scenery. Intense love and imminent death of one of the lovers is not an unusual story. Through the beautiful photography, the cool and tight directing of De Sica, one senses that the dangerous mountains will provide the ending. The acting does not drag you in willy-nilly to experience ardently the emotions but leaves you to decide how you would have acted in such a tragedy. Some might agree with the American critic Maltin who found it pseudo romantic slop, others with a European sensitivity may decide like the lovers or remain ambiguous, but definitely not unmoved by their own thinking and their own feelings.