This much neglected Italian comedy drama, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli and starring Simone Signore and Marcello Mastroianni, was voted Best Italian film of the year and won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.
It presents a fine portrait of female friendship in the face of hypocrisy and moral constraint in society.
And yet it is a somewhat forgotten classic – perhaps because of a uniquely Italian attitude to its subject matter.
Made at a time when Italy was being acclaimed for producing serious, art-house and neo-realist movies, this film injects comedy into that neo-realistic style.
And the director presents each of the women as individuals – largely thanks to Pietrangeli being able to find fine actors; not only Signoret and Mastroianni, but also Sandra Milo, Emanuelle Riva and Gina Rovere.
But we should perhaps start with a quick history of Italian sex work :-
The premise of this comedy is change brought about by the so-called Merlin Law. Its name comes from senator Lina Merlin – the first woman in the Italian Senate – who sought to end exploitation and the un-hygienic working conditions pertaining to brothels. The result in 1958 was … all the brothels were closed down. And from that date (and still) brothels have been illegal in Italy (though individual sex workers, working from apartments, are “tolerated”).
PLOT
In Rome, where brothels have just been outlawed, Adua (Simone Signoret) and her workmates, Lolita (Sandra Milo), Marilina (Emanuelle Riva) and Milly (Gina Rovere), find themselves out of work thanks to the Merlin Law.
Adua persuades them to invest their savings in a trattoria in the suburbs of Rome, which will enable them to start a new business and leave their lives as prostitutes behind.
But when they are refused permission to open because of their past, the women are forced to make an arrangement with a shady businessman, who will act as the official owner.
So although the restaurant business is thriving, it seems they are still blocked from advancing themselves and must realise that society is not ready to welcome them back with open arms.
THE ITALIAN WAY
The drama is bound by a great jazz soundtrack (unfortunately uncredited) that distracts from the many problems the women face – such as mafia and corrupt local officials.
They must negotiate licenses, permits and documents that enforce payment of heavy sums.
All the women want to settle down: one has a child; another meets a man who loves her; but at least one is tempted to return to her old life. They are far from perfect, but they at least try to be self-sufficient.
And this contrasts sharply with the men who surround them – who are, in the main, self-seeking, callous and cowardly brutes.
None of this sounds like comedy, yet it is played with such sympathy that we follow individual and collective stories with hope.
But in this genre happy endings are clearly not a staple and the closing scene in the rain has been ranked as one of the all-time unforgettable film endings.
There are moments of comic reality – in the steam trains that rush below the car dealer’s window; or where Mastroianni’s salesman patter passes off Signoret’s failing car as a bargain for a businessman who, he says, should snap it up (even while he slips her into another car in the street)!
Despite his manipulation, Signoret’s character falls for Mastroianni’s hustling womanizer and she turns in a performance that ranges from sexy to sad, energetic to dejected – though perhaps best of all is her verbal onslaught on ‘the landlord’.
Simone Signoret (1921-1985)
The star of the piece, Signoret, had endured a long film apprenticeship during World War II, working without an official permit during the Nazi occupation of France because – though a French actress, born in Germany – her father was Jewish and had fled to England.
She had already appeared in some 40 films by the time she made Adua e le Campagne and had become a recognised name in titles such as Casque d’Or (1952) and Diabolique (1955). Her big breakthrough to international stardom had come with Room at the Top (1958), which was only now breaking through.
In fact, Hollywood had beckoned her throughout the 1950s, but both she and her second husband, Yves Montand, were not permitted to enter the US because their politics did not agree with McCarthy-ism, then gripping America.
But they were finally granted visas in the same year as Adua e le Campagne (1960), not because of the film, but because this allowed Montand (a singer as well as film star) to perform in New York and San Francisco.
So they were in Los Angeles in March, 1960, when Signoret received her Oscar for best actress in Room at the Top (which, through made in 1958, was released in 1959 and therefore made the 1960 Oscar draw). They stayed on so that Montand could play opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love (1960).
Marcello Mastroianni (1924 -1996)
Regarded as one of Italy’s most iconic actors of the 20th century (though not quite by 1960), Mastroianni would play lead roles for many top directors (in 147 films from 1939 to 1997), winning international awards such as 2 BAFTAs, 2 Best Actor awards from the Venice and Cannes film festivals, 2 Golden Globes and garnering 3 Academy Award nominations.
Born in Fontana Liri, Mastroianni’s father ran a carpentry shop and the family moved to Turin, then to Rome. During WW2 Marcello was sent to a German prison camp, from which he escaped and hid in Venice.
His debut in films was as an uncredited extra in Marionette (1939), before working for the Italian department of Eagle Lion Films in Rome.
Spotted in a drama club production by director Luchino Visconti, he was given a starring role in White Nights (1957), aged 32. And in 1958 he played a thief in Mario Monicelli’s comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958).
He had appeared in more than 50 films by 1960, but this year was to see his breakthrough, for 3 months after Adua e le campagne opened, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita shot him to fame as a weary-eyed journalist of the Rome jet-set.
This began his reputation as a “Latin lover”, which Mastroianni did his best to shake off by subsequently accepting parts playing passive and sensitive men. Not that his role in Adua e le campagne, playing Pietro Salvagni the car salesman, is one of them! But it does show his talent for comedy.
Antonio Pietrangeli (1919-1968)
Director Pietrangeli’s career in cinema began as a writer and in 1943, as well as working on its screenplay, he had been 2nd Unit director on Visconti’s Ossessione, an Italian take on The Postman Always Rings Twice.
He won a Nastro d’Argento (Silver Ribbon) for Best Director, awarded by the Italian National Association of Film Journalists, for the comedy drama Io la conoscevo bene (1965).
In all Pietrangeli wrote and contributed to more than 30 screenplays and directed 13 films before his untimely death, aged only 49, drowning by accident in the Gulf of Gaeta, while working on Come, quando, perché (1968). The movie was completed by his friend, director Valerio Zurlini.
Classic Film 