Le Amiche - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Le Amiche (English: The Girlfriends) is a 1955 Italian black-and-white drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, and Valentina Cortese. Adapted from Cesare Pavese's novel Tra donne sole (1949), the film is about a young woman who returns to her native Turin to set up a new fashion salon and becomes involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy women friends. The film was shot on location in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. Le Amiche received the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion award in 1955, and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon Award for Best Director (Michelangelo Antonioni) and Best Supporting Actress (Valentina Cortese).

Plot

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Returning to her native Turin for the opening of a branch of a Rome fashion salon, the elegant Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) discovers a young woman named Rosetta Savoni (Madeleine Fischer) near death in the next room of her hotel. Rosetta took an overdose of sleeping pills in an attempt to commit suicide. Clelia, who is alone in her hometown, befriends Rosetta and her three wealthy friends. Momina De Stefani (Yvonne Furneaux) is separated from her husband and easily replaces lovers. Nene (Valentina Cortese) is a talented artist becoming successful in her career; she is living with a frustrated painter named Lorenzo (Gabriele Ferzetti) who envies the success of his wife. Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani) is futile. Clelia is attracted by Carlo (Ettore Manni), the assistant of the salon's architect, Cesare Pedoni (Franco Fabrizi), but he belongs to the working class living in a different social reality. When Momina and Clelia discover that the reason Rosetta tried to commit suicide was because she felt in love for Lorenzo, the cynical Momina encourages Rosetta to stay with him, even though he and Nene were supposed to marry soon. The advice leads to tragic consequences.

Cast

Eleonora Rossi Drago as Clelia

Gabriele Ferzetti as Lorenzo

Franco Fabrizi as Cesare Pedoni, the architect

Valentina Cortese as Nene

Yvonne Furneaux as Momina De Stefani

Madeleine Fischer as Rosetta Savoni

Anna Maria Pancani as Mariella

Luciano Volpato as Tony

Maria Gambarelli as Clelia's employer

Ettore Manni as Carlo

Production

The script for Le Amiche was adapted from a novel by Cesare Pavese. As such, it is one of the few adaptations Antonioni directed, the others being Blowup (based on a short story by Julio Cortázar), The Mystery of Oberwald (adapted from Jean Cocteau's play L'Aigle à deux têtes, which Cocteau had previously adapted to film) and his final feature, Beyond the Clouds (1995), based on a book of his own short stories. Antonioni wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Alba De Cespedes.