Review by brogmiller

Although I admire tremendously the work of Mauro Bolognini I feel this film represents style over substance. The production values are superb of course with Armando Nannuzzi as cinematographer and Morricone as composer but any film in which the characters are so hollow and superficial that their fates do not concern us and in whom we have no interest must be accounted a failure. One wonders what author Ercole Patti thought of it. Thanks to the ineffable mysteries of Italian post-synchronisation there is lots of 'dubbing' going on here (including Lollobrigida and Ferzetti!) which only makes the characters seem even more remote. La Lollo is well lit, Ferzetti wasted and the supporting players simply not up to standard. No director, however accomplished, hits the mark every time and here Bolognini has given us a film that looks great but lacks heart.