La visita

Imagine when corresponding with your would-be boyfriend for the first time that you commend him on sending you his photo which also featured a boat that had the same name as your deceased mother! How very romantic. Mind you, at least that's better than one respondent to "Pina" (Sandro Milo) who was quite an hunk but more interested in her savings! "Adolfo" (François Périer) is the man she has selected to meet and so she anxiously awaits his arrival at the station. He's not exactly an oil painting nor do they exactly "gel" as he is a little more reserved than she but each are polite enough as she takes him to her home. This arrival is a bit of a baptism of fire and introduces him (and us) to some of the local characters who live in her town and who don't take too kindly to this interloper. Can they make a go of things? Well as their day unfolds we are presented with flashbacks of both of their previous lives and as "Adolfo" starts to enjoy the wine some of his reservations begin to flow more than ebb. It's a genuinely quite funny look at life and there's an enjoyable chemistry between Milo and Périer that is engagingly complemented by the eccentric "Cucaracha" (Mario Adorf), "Chiaretta" (Angela Minervini) and a tightly cast group of characterful individuals who amiably show off the eccentricities of a community that's not seen much change since the Pope was called Peter. Antonio Pietrangeli directs with deftness here, allowing the personalities to shine but also including some local locations, daft scenarios and some mud to create a sense of sexually charged mischief throughout. I'm not sure it does wonders for the Italian car industry, though - nor their manly reputation as Casanovas, either.

I bought La Visita having watched Adua e le Compagne and then wondered what else Pietrangeli had directed that I could get hold of with English subtitles. La Visita is at least as good as Adua and features another great performance from Sandra Milo. She is a thirty-something small town woman called Pina who decides that the time has come to get married and so places an advert in the paper in the hope of finding a suitable man. After some correspondence with Adolfo she invites him to come to her home for the day so that they can get to know each other and it is this day, along with a few flashbacks, that provides the whole of the movie. We are introduced to Pina as she prepares to meet Adolfo at the railway station – heavily made up, sashaying around in a white suit and adjusting the poster of the Tower Of Pisa in the waiting room so it doesn't lean. Pietrangeli sets up a caricature of a slightly dim and frivolous woman then spends the rest of the film subtly undermining it as we come to realise that Pina is shrewder, more capable and yet more vulnerable than at first glance. Sandro Milo is an intelligent comic actress and gives her character a great deal of warmth and humanity so that we root for her all the way. She makes us will Adolfo to be the man she wants him to be and then, when he clearly falls short, makes us desperately hope that she will see through him. After a day of incident where the two get to know each other and Adolfo meets all the friends and neighbours in Pina's life, the film culminates with great sympathy and insight in a way which is just about perfect. This is a very funny and ultimately moving film which deserves to be seem by a much wider audience.

Four great actors, Sandra Milo, François Périer, Mario Adorf and Gastone Moschin, all outstanding, even in small roles such as Moschin and Adorf. Although he has a small role, Adorf steals the film, his character being the most comic and totally special. Antonio Pietrangeli, brilliant director. Superb music signed by Armando Trovajoli. A movie to be watched and watched again at any time.

Despite being more than fifty years old, La visita manages to be fresh and incisive even today. It turns out that before online dating, there were people who searched for love in he classified ads of the newspaper (some still perhaps do). The story is at turns amusing and sad, following the attempt of two singles to decide whether or not they might be able to make it together.

Gorgeous cinematography. Intimate, convincing acting. All in all, quite good.

Very enjoyable anti-romance showing the first in-person meeting between a woman from a small town in the countryside and a man from Rome who answered to her matrimonial ad and was selected by her out of seven or so respondents (for reasons we in fact learn a bit about). They also go out and meet some of her friends. From pretty early on it clearly looks like a mismatch, and there's a lot of dysfunctional communication, some of which quite funny. The film strikes a good balance between comedy and tragedy, it can make you laugh but also has a serious edge. I enjoyed getting to know the characters better over the length of the film; not all is quite as it seems in the beginning. The end is very elegant, giving just the right amount of closure but still leaving a few things open for the audience to think about. Creating a convincing end is hard, a weakness of many films, and I have rarely seen it done so well. 60 years later I wonder how typical some of the stuff was for the relation between men and women in 1960s Italy; the city vs. Countryside thing is another tension that plays out nicely, and obviously how personal contact can turn out very differently from the romantic dreams of those looking for love after having exchanged some letters. If I'd have to change one thing, I'd portray the man as slightly more sympathetic from the beginning, which would in my view add even more credibility to this; he seems somewhat exaggerated as a caricature. Although I may be wrong, and in 1963 his unpleasantness and her patience with it may in fact have been realistic enough. As I wrote, there is a certain amount of surprise later, but it's organic enough to make sense. Very good performance by Sandra Milo, who despite her attraction is credible as lonely woman to look for marriage. Recommended, 8.7 stars.