Senilità

Based on Italo Svevo's great novel so admired by James Joyce, this atmospherically photographed film is set in old Trieste and centers on a middle-aged public official and his unrequited love for a flirtatious but unpossessable girl who blithely betrays him. The melancholy hero is played by Anthony Franciosa; Claudia Cardinale is the girl. The man's sister (Betsy Blair) is a depressive also disappointed in love. Upon her death by her own hand our hero faces a life of continued solitude. Bolognini's misty evocation of perennial "tristezza" (sadness of spirit) and its equivalent in damp gloomy ambiance is the kind of thing he does so well. One only has to think of what he achieved in "La viaccia" and "Fatti di gente perbene". This is one of his very best films and was only given a limited release in the U.S.A. under the title of "Careless". Director of photography Armando Nannuzzi gave the "old postcard" look to the city.

A year before his death in 1928 Italo Svevo revised and republished his novel to great acclaim. The narrative style is a little heavy going but he has created a quartet of very interesting characters. Svevo much admired Sigmund Freud and this quartet are in effect 'crossed pairs' who represent Freud's theory that human beings are either 'fighters' or 'contemplators'. The devil-may-care womanising artist Balli and the sexually liberated Angiolina definitely belong to category 1 whilst intellectual Emilio and his reserved sister Amalia have almost contemplated themselves into a state of solitude. Emilio himself says that to love is to lose oneself and that is something that intellectuals find hard to do. His obsessive love for the fickle and faithless Angiolina drags him to the depths while his sister's unrequited love for Balli has even more dire consequences.

This angst ridden and passionate material is perfectly suited to the directorial style of Mauro Bolognini and this is arguably his greatest achievement.

This is the third of three films that Claudia Cardinale was to make with this director and she is magnificent as Angiolina, a woman that one should despise but whom one cannot fail to find fascinating. She wears a wig here cut in the style of Louise Brooks in 'Pandora's Box' which makes her even more alluring than usual. Dashing Philippe Leroy is perfectly cast as Balli and Betsy Blair, having been obliged to quit Hollywood for 'political' reasons, is superlative as Amalia. Her descent into madness is harrowing to behold. It is the casting of Anthony Franciosa as Emilio that has divided opinion. He had already proved in 'Hatful of Rain' that with good material and a first class director he could rise to the occasion and he does so again here. Although roughly the same age as the character in the novel he doesn't alas quite convince as an intellectual. Emilio is probably the least appealing of the quartet and the most demanding to play but Franciosa captures both the character's weakness and egocentricity. His talk of approaching age is not that surprising bearing in mind that in the 1920's to be thirty-five was considered middle-aged! Obviously cast with a view to the American market one cannot help wondering if he was first choice for the role.

The film itself is rendered unforgettable by the images that magician Armando Nannuzzi has captured of Hapsburgian Trieste and the Adriatic. Multi-award winning Piero Tosi, favoured by both Bolognini and Visconti, has again excelled with the sets and costumes. Piero Piccioni has contributed a truly haunting score.

Bolognini has unfairly been dismissed as a 'poor man's Visconti' but they do have a great deal in common. They are both perfectionists, extremely erudite, stylish and skilful with a stunning visual sense. If Visconti is Italian cinema's Michelangelo then Bolognini is surely its Raphael.

Time has its own ways also in terms of movies. I have just finished watching 'Senilità' (the English title is 'Careless') directed by Mauro Bolognini, a prolific and well-known Italian director at the time, author of 46 films between 1953 and 1995, a collaborator of Pasolini who was the script-writer of some of his films. 'Senilità' was released in 1962, the year in which in Italy Michelangelo Antonioni made 'L'Eclisse' and Vittorio De Sica 'The Condemned of Altona'. In many ways, however,'Senilità' seems to have been made in another era.

Time plays an important role in the concept of this film. Bolognini brings to screen a novel by Italo Svevo, whose action takes place in Trieste, but moves the story from the end of the 19th century to 1927. The change is significant not only from a historical point of view, the Adriatic city changing its belonging from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an Italy hesitating between liberalism and Fascism in the period between the two world wars. Placing the story in a slightly closer era gave to Bolognini the opportunity to shoot in a location in a Trieste that still retained many of the city's characteristics between the two wars, and the resulting cinematography is the most successful part of the film in my opinion. Today the black and white film is used to create 'artistic effects', but in 1962 it was still a bit cheaper than the color film, and the choice was, I think, economical. A decision with a good artistic result.

Changing the place of the story from the introverted Austro-Hungary of the end of the 19th century to the liberated post-World War I atmosphere is not just a change of background. The moralist perspective and the psychological introspection in Sveto's text gain psychoanalytic tones amplified by social differences that remind Neo-realism. We are dealing with a 'romantic square', two men and two women who can not overcome the social and psychological barriers to consume their passions. Sveto's dialogues sound artificial and conventional, and they do not fit well in the period in which the film is placed. The actors' performances are also rhetoric, with the brilliant exception of Claudia Cardinale's appearance. The Italian actress already on the road leading her to super-star status seems to come from another world, not only because of the character's beauty and vulnerability, but also because of the quality of her acting. It's for her and for the cinematography that 'Senilità' is a movie that deserves to be seen.

"Emilio Brentani" (Anthony Franciosa) is a man in his 40's who lives with his sister "Amalia Brentani" (Betsy Blair). One day he meets a beautiful, young woman named "Angiolina Zarri" (Claudia Cardinale) and wants to possess her in the worst possible way and even tells her this. However, he makes it clear to her that he has no intention of marrying her. Not long afterward he learns of her checkered past and it makes him insanely jealous. Yet rather than dealing with this jealousy he insists upon having her even though he fully realizes that she desperately needs money and that whatever relationship they have cannot last. Meanwhile, his sister becomes enamored of Emilio's best friend, "Stefano Balli" (Philippe Leroy) who has a notorious reputation as a playboy which Emilio realizes can only cause Amilia a lot of pain and heartbreak for her in the future. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will only say that this turned out to be an excellent romantic-drama made even more impressive by the fine performance of Anthony Franciosa along with the presence of Claudia Cardinale who was simply exquisite. In any case, I believe that those who enjoy films of this nature will definitely want to check this one out and I have rated it accordingly.