Le amiche

Lighter (at times), more emotionally complex, yet symbolically simpler than later films by Antonioni. This reminded me more of Fellini, Woody Allen, and (in the lighter, early moments) even Almodovar.

It goes without saying that the film is great looking (could Antonioni frame a bad shot?). And it has lots of plot, surprising from a filmmaker who soon after ran from traditional plot and story. Lovers change hands, lives rise and fall among five female friends (artists, clothing designers, etc).

This is labeled a masterpiece by some, but to me it felt a bit too soapy, and some of the characters and performances a bit one note or on-the-nose to raise it to quite that level. I was never bored, and the images were thrilling, but I didn't find myself caring deeply on a conventional level, nor drawn in on a more intellectual, poetic level as the later Antonioni films do. But all that said, I'm still glad I saw it.

This is a little-seen 1955 film by Michelangelo Antonioni, shot before he really got into the sort of directorial wonderment's of L'Avventura and The Eclipse in the 1960's. In fact one has to have seen several of his films, if not an outright fan of his work, to appreciate that it's one of his films.

It's really a melodrama that is given a one-up from its soap-opera tendencies in its story by Antonioni's fluid camera style and the performances. There are little moments- again if you know his work a little bit- where you can see the inklings of what would come in the prime of his career as an art-house theater master. But if you're a newcomer to his work it works just as well, if not better, because of how it is told without pretense.

Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) is set to run a fashion salon. She becomes apart of a group of fairly well-off late-20, early-30-something women after one of the girls, Rosetta (Madeline Fischer) overdoses on pills. She becomes close to them, or close as she would want to be, and sees how close-knit they are - and, as girlfriends can tend to be, occasionally vicious in verbal ways, such as a scene on a beach that is shaky at best and volatile at worst - and also their romantic relationships.

One of them is an affable architect, Cesare, who becomes closer to Momina (the older one of the group), and Clelia becomes attracted to Carlo, Cesare's assistant, which brings up some class issues as he's not, shall we say, as "well-off" as everybody else. Meanwhile, Rosetta tries to bring back some normalcy or just stability to her situation, but she falls for Lorenzo, a painter, who is already romantically involved with Nene, another of the girlfriends.

Their confrontation about the Lorenzo situation, between Nene and Rosetta, with Nene mostly talking, is one of the more startling things about the film. Again, a lot of this could be construed as soap-opera stuff: she sleeps with him, he sleeps with her, she's jealous of her, she's spiteful of her, so on and so on. But that one scene, where Nene tells Rosetta off, is powerful because it's not as over the top as one might expect.

It comes at a point in the film where there has already been some drama (again, the very wonderful beach scene, with its slight, subtle nod to the scenes at the rocky coast in L'Avventura), and it's a scene that gains its power from how simply Nene speaks about the affair and how she feels about it. It's moments like that, or when Rosetta walks with her lover on a street and they talk, that make it so worthwhile as drama. Antonioni casts the group very well, which helps, especially for Rosetta, who is played by Fischer as a fragile person but not so weak as to always be pushed around. And the male actors are surprising in their sensitivity to their roles.

It's is one of the director's finer films, and a good introduction to his work if not by way of the sort of existential malaise of a La Notte or Red Desert then to the underrated attention to characters and emotions Antonioni can have when he's most focused, and in classic black and white no less shot by the great Gianni Di Venanzo. It's like Lifetime for mature people, and lovers of 1950's-set Italian cinema (or, to put it another way, like a "chick-flick" version of Fellini's I Vittelloni).

Michelangelo Antonioni seems to adjust his visual style with his subject matter. In the very slow 'Red Desert', which is more or less a dissertation on how industrial surroundings inspire fatigue, the camera (as I recall) moved rarely.

Contrast 'Red Desert' with 'Le amiche', a nearly plot less gem. In doing so we begin to appreciate Antonioni's visual plan. In 'amiche', the camera is frequently moving; scenes typically begin with people passing through the frame and the cutting is brisk. The visuals perfectly match the overall theme of glib, upper-class, attractive adults stumbling into love and reacting to heartache. Just as the characters are free from the burdens the working class endure, so too Antonioni's camera work is free and lively.

Visually, 'Le amiche' is striking; superb. The cast is very strong (and beautiful). The economic class consciousness is also a powerful subtext.

Modern audiences may chuckle at how often (and nearly everywhere) the characters smoke cigarettes. They smoke at home, at their workplaces, restaurants, diners, fashion salons, hotel lobbies, outdoors and indoors. Was there any place where smoking was not allowed in 1950s Italy?

Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago), an elegant lady from Rome, comes to her hometown Turin in order to check if the works would fit the dates in the house where she is going to establish her new fashion salon. When she stays at a hotel, a terrible event takes place in the opposite room 112...a young woman, Rosetta Savone (Madeleine Fischer), has attempted to commit suicide... Why? The answer lies in the complicated relations of a group of women whom Rosetta has known for long and whom Clelia joins as a friend. Although the action starts in "media res" and the events constitute about 7 days, the characters from this movie are unforgettable as well as its content filled with wonderful thoughts about significant aspects of life and happiness. Therefore, although Michelangelo Antonioni is famous worldwide not thanks to this movie, I consider LE AMICHE one of his very best cinema works. Let me discuss some of the film's strongest points in more details.

The film can boast a particularly rich character development. The girlfriends (title "amiche") are mostly women from leisure social classes who spend their lives on unimportant cases, particularly clothes, parties, and Sunday afternoon trips to the seaside. Momina De Stefani (Yvonne Furneaux) is the oldest of them but at the same time the most selfish. She treats life as a game to play limiting it to perfumes, beauty creams and clothes. It is her that bores Rosetta most by her cynical behavior. Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani), a woman that today men would describe "a dolly", represents this vanity most. She thinks the woman's dress is skin and is ready to do anything to look beautiful. In between comes Nene (Valentina Cortese) who is rather torn psychologically between her interests and the reality she lives in (marriage). Rosetta is tired of living with them and looks for a true and stable happiness with a man she cannot marry... Throughout the film, a viewer can feel what characters feel since great focus is put on emotions. However, it would be a limited view to say that only female characters are developed. There are also men who step in with their different world-views. The emphasis is put on Lorenzo (Gabrielle Ferzetti), Nene's husband, an artist painter whose career and family life are exposed to crisis. He cannot stand the vanity of the women but at the same time is torn between his desire for career and the marriage he lives in. Finally, Cesare (Franco Fabrizi), an architect, man from high society represents rather an arrogant person but in the end, someone who does not treat problems as seriously as Lorenzo. In this way, LE AMICHE is not only a story of women but, foremost, an interesting insight into male-female relations, their different world-views, different feelings. Consider Rosetta-Lorenzo conversation and the two different ways they see love...

Besides, Antonioni's movie is a treasure of psychological thoughts and treatment of significant issues of life. Here, a mention must be made of Nene-Lorenzo's marriage and the aspect of forgiveness. "A childless couple can stay together only for love" says Nene to Rosetta in their conversation that is a masterpiece of acting and script by Suso Cecchi d'Amico. Yet, forgiveness cures everything... Apart from that, the words that a salon's lady says to Clelia are also worth consideration: "Happiness means no reflecting upon if I am happy or not but simply living my life." I also loved the moment when Rosetta travels by train with Clelia and they talk about the need of friends, the gist of being happy and the best possible way to live life. How intellectually these problems are treated! Magnificent! And all this embedded in the interesting gentle tunes by Mario Fusco.

The cast give such fine performances that viewers have a chance to get to know the characters much better than in many other films. Yvonne Furneaux is exceptionally memorable as cynical and calm nerved Momina whose sole aim of life is the good appearance and who plays with others' feelings. Eleonora Rossi Drago is very sensible as Clelia expressing her elegance and positive character of a woman who finds happiness in her satisfying work. Madeleine Fischer is wonderful as Rosetta Savone, a desperate person who cannot live a happy life. Finally, Valentina Cortese is unforgettable as Nene, probably the fairest of them all ready to sacrifice everything and forgive everything.

LE AMICHE shows the life from its objective perspective and therefore it is a movie absolutely worth attention for anybody. LE AMICHE is filled with profound thoughts even if its content seems to be filled with vanity and therefore, it is Antonioni's psychological masterpiece. LE AMICHE is an empathy with those in despair and therefore, it is not dated though more than 50 years old. Finally, LE AMICHE is characterized by great performances and therefore, it is a pearl among Italian films. Pity that there are so few comments on the site. 8/10!

I have seen again "Le amiche" after many years and considered it the best film of Antonioni, far better than those other famous films of the inventor of the un-communication, describing the industrial society of 60's Italy. The film is clear and enjoyable, with a perfect script, surprisingly modern after 45 years; in fact, in some aspects, more modern than films about today's society, more mature, more adult. The problems of women's evolution in society, the machismo, the vanity and shallowness of men, the bitchiness and emptiness of some women, the conflict between love and career...are all subjects masterly described by Antonioni in this beautiful film. The actors are superb, specially the actresses, main characters of this story: Eleonara Rossi Drago, the leading lady, apart from being beautiful has class, and one wonder why she didn't became one of the most important stars in European cinema. The others, are simply splendid: Valentina Cortese, what a voice! and Madeleine Fisher and Ivonne Fourneaux.

See this movie if you have the chance. I consider it one of the best Italian movies ever made.