Appearances can be deceiving — intentionally or not. That’s true of human beings, and it’s also true of movies.

By the time La visita has reached its ten or fifteen-minute mark, it seems fairly clear what sort of a film it’s going to be. Directed by Antonio Pietrangeli and released in 1963, its story concerns Pina (Sandra Milo) and Adolfo (François Périer), forty-ish singles (she a few years younger than that, he possibly a tad older) who have become acquainted by means of a personal ad that Pina has placed in a newspaper. Following a brief correspondence, including an exchange of photographs, the two have agreed that the time has come for them to meet in person in order to give their relationship the opportunity to develop beyond the confines of their letters. As such, they’ve arranged for the Rome-based Adolfo to travel to Pina’s small hometown of San Benedetto Po for a one-day visit — and no sooner has he arrived than the situation starts to take an unpleasant turn for him. It’s nothing so terrible, really, at least in these opening minutes. Aside from a jarring run-in with Cucaracha (Mario Adorf), a brawny young man with perhaps some form of mental illness or intellectual disability who sticks his face in the window of Pina’s car, informs Adolfo that he doesn’t like him, indirectly threatens to smash his head in and then spits on him, most of the issues he encounters are minor, even petty annoyances: the passenger door of the car is broken and has to be held shut throughout their drive from the train station, he immediately steps in very wet mud upon reaching Pina’s house, her singing parrot and the chimes that clang whenever her doors open get on his nerves from the moment he first hears them. In and of themselves, these are mere nuisances, but their quick accumulation imbues them with a collective significance and creates the anticipation of more to come. If things are starting out this badly, chances are that they’ll only get worse, much worse.