christopher-underwood

During the opening credits we see this Sicily town, not named, although it is actually, Sciacca. Two sisters are making there way to church, there are not too many people about and it looks hot and we get some close-ups of the younger one and she is, stunning. We later find out that this is Agnese and played my the beautiful Stefania Sandrelli. She was eighteen and in our story only sixteen but after church it is siesta and something goes wrong. Something tells us it might have been a comedy but it is not, but a dark satire. I understand that in Italy, not just in Sicily, that if a woman was raped the man may avoid going to prison if he marries the victim. In law was known as Article 544 and it was only finally abolished in 1981. Pietro Germi had made Divorce Italian Style (1961) and it was loved in many countries, although not in Scilly and they were worried about their social customs and honor law. In this amazing film they were even more unhappy about with this one.

What a wonderful film, not really a neo-realist, as I'm not too keen on them, this is more a melodrama but not sentimental and very realistic. I knew that a train driver was going to have a terrible accident and affect his family but this is so much more than this. The director, Pietro Germi also plays the part of the driver and although his family has it's problems he really loves his youngest son. The kid is played by Edoardo Nevola, only eight at the time but helped by Germi manages to have him revolve around this. There are so many amazing scenes with him, like the one with his older sister, and he is on his own and trying to work it out her being pregnant with her boyfriend, in the 50s and in Italy. So many brilliant scenes with the trains and great shots of the streets and people running around. There are also splendid shots of some bars and so many men inside and great bits singing with Germi at the centre with his guitar. Often his son will be there as he has been sent to bring him home but sometimes he stays on and enthusiastically sings as well. Later on we will see his guitar being dropped, at the very end.

In the UK and especially in London it would be the cool and colourful 'swinging sixties', and with this film it was about to happen. Although Richard Lester had made The Knack...and How to Get it (1965) very different and very black and white but he also made the Beatles with A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965) but surely it was with this Antonioni one it was really changing. Some thought this film was boring but is seemed so shocking and thrilling for us baby boomers. I had always liked Antonioni, especially his 50s trilogy of, L'Avventura, La Notte and L'Eclisse and I really loved his first moody and stunning colour film, Red Desert (1964). But then this one, two years later, gave us David Hemmings seeming much like David Bailey, the man of the moment photographer, and the models, like the amazing Verusehka and both of the two of them on most posters. Admittedly there is not a lot of action but there is a lot of photography and modelling and with Vanessa Redgrave in that much forgotten park and a killing or not. At the centre of this are those blow ups (and some mimes) and there is some cannabis smoked and The Yardbirds. But it is about those photographs and that park that it is so thrilling for this young man who it seems is bored with his girlfriends and his models and his antique propeller. In the UK and especially in London it would be the cool and colourful 'swinging sixties', and with this film it was about to happen. Although Richard Lester had made The Knack...and How to Get it (1965) very different and very black and white but he also made the Beatles with A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965) but surely it was with this Antonioni one it was really changing. Some thought this film was boring but is seemed so shocking and thrilling for us baby boomers. I had always liked Antonioni, especially his 50s trilogy of, L'Avventura, La Notte and L'Eclisse and I really loved his first moody and stunning colour film, Red Desert (1964). But then this one, two years later, gave us David Hemmings seeming much like David Bailey, the man of the moment photographer, and the models, like the amazing Verusehka and both of the two of them on most posters. Admittedly there is not a lot of action but there is a lot of photography and modelling and with Vanessa Redgrave in that much forgotten park and a killing or not. At the centre of this are those blow ups (and some mimes) and there is some cannabis smoked and The Yardbirds. But it is about those photographs and that park that it is so thrilling for this young man who it seems is bored with his girlfriends and his models and his antique propeller.