Io la conoscevo bene

"Io La Conoscevo Bene" or "I Knew Her Well" in English translation is a somewhat different film from the rest made by Antonio Pietrangeli and one of his last before his premature death. The theme of loneliness and alienation is not new in cinema,but Pietrangeli takes it from a different angle: his heroine,the naive countryside girl Adriana,who dreams of a career as a star in Rome, is not an escapist or introvert;on the contrary, she tries her best to socialize and befriend people , but the results are most disappointing and frustrating - people just ignore her, use her, make fun of her,exploit her body and her good intentions.Nobody is taking her seriously.Is it our cruel modern world's trademark?Seems to be true.INDIFFERENCE also kills. The magnificent cast of the greatest of Italian stars , each of them playing very small episodes,give distinctive CHARACTERS, blood and flesh ,to their protagonists,though their screen life lasts no more than five minutes each. The soundtrack by Piero Piccioni,like the sound of a torn string in the middle of a tune, suggests a young life broken before it has blossomed. Stefania Sandrelli, still a TEENAGER(!!) ,performs in an amazingly mature and confident way.Though she had some experience of working with great directors before (Pietro Germi), her psychological portrayal of a silly girl mesmerized by the glitter of the big city is very deep and convincing. Of course, this film was the labour of love of Antonio Pitrangeli, a very experienced director, but somewhat underrated ( nobody would put him on a pedestal alongside Fellini or Visconti).This film, undoubtedly,would make film critics and the audience reconsider the hierarchy of the Italian cinema Olympus dwellers.

A great capsule of life in Italy in the early 60s. There are shades of la Dolce Vita since every scene takes place in summer and features incredible clothing, but our point of view here is radically different: it is that of a vulnerable young woman instead of a successful jaded male intellectual like in the Fellini movie. The vita is not so dolce for the girl played by the innocent-looking Stefania Sandrelli (who was apparently only 19 when she starred in that film, but what maturity she displays as an actress already.) A peasant girl from the sticks, we meet her right away in Rome where she aspires to glamour, stardom, fame etc. But because she does not know anyone, and is both naive and not very bright to boot, she takes many wrong turns and indulges all the wrong people. This film is very entertaining, because we are in Rome in 1964, it feels and looks like a hot summer all along, and the dresses worn by Sandrelli are unbelievably glamorous. But it is a ferocious social satire, and it is tender neither to our silly heroine nor to the sharks who exploit her and many others. The black&white photography is gorgeous on the eyes. Nino Manfredi and Ugo Tognazzi do each a memorable turn among the victim/exploiters that populates this Roman shark tank. Sandrelli is so good (and so beautiful) that she manages to make her character attaching in spite of her flaws.

Kind of a smaller version of La Dolce Vita with a female lead, this slice of 1960s Roman life is great in its own right. Stefania Sandrelli (probably best remembered as the woman who shared a sexy dance with Dominque Sanda in The Conformist) plays an aspiring actress and model who spends her nights partying her ass off and her mornings alone. The plot is pretty simple and pretty predictable, but director Pietrangeli shoots the film in a very experiential style - it feels like you're partying alongside Sandrelli, and it's just a really wonderful experience. Sandrelli herself is outstanding. It's a character that could come off as a cliché, but she plays her so knowingly and passionately. It's very, very easy to fall in love. The film is stuffed full of wonderful '60s pop songs (the only ones I recognized were by Millie Small, a Jamaican ska artist best known for her hit "My Boy Lollipop"), tremendous clothes and hairdos, and that crisp 1960s black and white. A must-see for anyone who loves the Italian films of this era.

There is a scene from I Knew Her Well between Adriana (Stefania Sandrelli) and The Writer (Joachim Fuchsberger) that says a lot about the film:

The Writer: "Trouble is, she likes everything. She's always happy. She desires nothing, envies no one, is curious about nothing. You can't surprise her. She doesn't notice the humiliations, though they happen to her every day. It all rolls off her back like some waterproof material. Zero ambition. No moral code. Not even a whore's love of money. Yesterday and tomorrow don't exist for her. Even living for today would mean too much planning, so she lives for the moment. Sunbathing, listening to records, and dancing are her sole activities. The rest of the time she's mercurial and capricious, always needing brief new encounters with anyone at all... just never with herself."

Adriana: "I'm Milena, right? Is that what I'm like? Some sort of dimwit?"

The Writer: "On the contrary. You may be the wisest of all."

I couldn't encapsulate the brilliance of this incredibly well directed character essay any better.

Italian drama from director Antonio Pietrangeli. Stefania Sandrelli stars as a young woman working in a seaside beauty salon with dreams of becoming a movie star. Her efforts in that direction have mixed results.

This is more of a character study than a plot-driven narrative. It's also a critique on the exploitation of women. Sandrelli is very good as the beautiful Adriana, who's not so much ambitious as bored with her life. She's shallow in that way that beautiful young women can be when they don't have to exert much effort to move in social circles. However, she's also used by virtually everyone she meets, either for profit or pleasure, and Adriana is usually left alone and in the same place as where she started. Adriana's desire for change is also exhibited in her hairstyles - she sports more than a half dozen throughout the film.

Director Pietrangeli also makes the audience complicit in the exploitation of Adriana, with camera "ogling" like her much as her many suitors do. From what I've read, this film is also well-liked in Italy for the many mid-60's pop music hits heard on the soundtrack. Recommended.