The Janus-headed The Facts of Murder looks back to the earlier neorealist docudramas of director, co-writer, and star Pietro Germi, while also presaging the sharply observed satirical outlook of films like Divorce Italian Style and Seduced and Abandoned. In the film, the comedic elements are mostly limited to the broad, almost caricatural handling of bumbling secondary characters. The primary storyline, involving an investigation into two ostensibly related crimes, is handled more like a police procedural along the lines of Jules Dassin’s The Naked City, albeit without that film’s authoritative narration.
The Facts of Murder’s central location is an apartment block. Quickly sketching in a number of characters and their relationships in the aftermath of the opening burglary, the film codes the victim, Commendatore Anzaloni (Ildebrando Santafe), as gay, and it’s suggested that the criminal might’ve been one of his pickups. But the focus of...
The Facts of Murder’s central location is an apartment block. Quickly sketching in a number of characters and their relationships in the aftermath of the opening burglary, the film codes the victim, Commendatore Anzaloni (Ildebrando Santafe), as gay, and it’s suggested that the criminal might’ve been one of his pickups. But the focus of...
- 1/4/2024
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Michelangelo Antonioni's pre-international breakthrough drama is as good as anything he's done, a flawlessly acted and directed story of complex relationships -- that include his 'career' themes before the existential funk set in. It's one of the best-blocked dramatic films ever... the direction is masterful. Le amiche Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 817 1955 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux, Anna Maria Pancani, Luciano Volpato, Maria Gambarelli, Ettore Manni. Cinematography Gianni De Venanzo Film Editor Eraldo Da Roma Original Music Giovanni Fusco Written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alba de Cespedes from a book by Cesare Pavese Produced by Giovanni Addessi Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
It's time to stop being so intimidated by Michelangelo Antonioni. His epics of existential alienation La notte, L'eclisse and...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
It's time to stop being so intimidated by Michelangelo Antonioni. His epics of existential alienation La notte, L'eclisse and...
- 6/4/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Camille 2000
Review by Pete of Mondo Squallido
Stars: Daniéle Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo, Eleonora Rossi Drago, Roberto Biasco, Massimo Serato | Written by Michael DeForrest | Directed by Radley Metzger
Here in the UK another big moment in cult cinema history has fallen upon us. A trio of Radley Metzger’s highly influential and well loved erotic classics have finally been released in all their glory and packed full of features from Arrow Video on deluxe Blu-ray and DVD combo packages. The first film chronologically out of the three is Camille 2000 and that is the DVD I will look at first.
Camille 2000 is an adaptation of a French novel called The Lady Of The Camellias, written in 1848 by Alexandre Dumas. The film follows the tragic relationship between a stunningly beautiful, luxurious and premiscuous woman by the name of Marguerite (Gaubert) who meets a rich, handsome and charming man called Armand...
Review by Pete of Mondo Squallido
Stars: Daniéle Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo, Eleonora Rossi Drago, Roberto Biasco, Massimo Serato | Written by Michael DeForrest | Directed by Radley Metzger
Here in the UK another big moment in cult cinema history has fallen upon us. A trio of Radley Metzger’s highly influential and well loved erotic classics have finally been released in all their glory and packed full of features from Arrow Video on deluxe Blu-ray and DVD combo packages. The first film chronologically out of the three is Camille 2000 and that is the DVD I will look at first.
Camille 2000 is an adaptation of a French novel called The Lady Of The Camellias, written in 1848 by Alexandre Dumas. The film follows the tragic relationship between a stunningly beautiful, luxurious and premiscuous woman by the name of Marguerite (Gaubert) who meets a rich, handsome and charming man called Armand...
- 2/11/2013
- by Guest
- Nerdly
The Italian master's challenging and difficult L'Avventura was booed at its premiere in Cannes. But nowadays the director gets something far more hurtful: indifference
This is the centenary year of Michelangelo Antonioni. He was born on 29 September 1912 and died in 2007 at the age of 94, having worked until almost the very end. As well as everything else, he gave us one of the founding myths of postwar cinema: The Booing of L'Avventura. For film historians, it's as pretty much important as the audience riots at the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
At the Cannes film festival on 15 May 1960, Antonioni presented his L'Avventura, a challenging and difficult film and a decisive break from his earlier work, replete with languorous spaces and silences. This was movie-modernism's difficult birth. The film was jeered so ferociously, so deafeningly, that poor Antonioni and his beautiful star Monica Vitti burst into tears where they sat. There...
This is the centenary year of Michelangelo Antonioni. He was born on 29 September 1912 and died in 2007 at the age of 94, having worked until almost the very end. As well as everything else, he gave us one of the founding myths of postwar cinema: The Booing of L'Avventura. For film historians, it's as pretty much important as the audience riots at the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
At the Cannes film festival on 15 May 1960, Antonioni presented his L'Avventura, a challenging and difficult film and a decisive break from his earlier work, replete with languorous spaces and silences. This was movie-modernism's difficult birth. The film was jeered so ferociously, so deafeningly, that poor Antonioni and his beautiful star Monica Vitti burst into tears where they sat. There...
- 9/27/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Hot on the heels of their awesome release of The Lickerish Quartet, Cult Epics have announced some cool new details for their imminent release of another Radley Metzger classic, Camille 2000.Cult Epics have managed to secure a never before seen recut of the film by Metzger and will be releasing it for the first time in a high definition transfer on both Blu-ray and DVD. Camille 2000 (Extended Version) Directed by: Radley Metzger Stars: Daniele Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo, Eleonora Rossi Drago A child of the sixties sexual revolution, beautiful, sensuous Marguerite (Daniel Gaubert) is addicted to sex and money. She is kept by a wealthy man, has a string of young lovers and hosts wild orgies in her luxurious villa. When she falls in love...
- 4/27/2011
- Screen Anarchy
A pair of recent releases from the always dependable Eureka imprint Masters of Cinema (re)introduce us to the 50s work of Michelangelo Antonioni, a filmmaker usually most closely associated with the 60s. The first is La Signora Senza Camelie, the behind the scenes tale of the rise and fall of an Italian actress, and the second is Le Amiche, an ensemble drama centred on a group of female friends in Turin.
La Signora Senza Camelie opens at night in Rome and Clara, played by the intoxicating Lucia Bose, is walking away, framed as a distant figure moving through the streets. She pauses before slowly entering a cinema which is playing host to the première of a musical melodrama of which she is the star. The screen is filled with Clara’s face, the close up on screen directly contrasting the lone figure we have just seen wandering towards the première.
La Signora Senza Camelie opens at night in Rome and Clara, played by the intoxicating Lucia Bose, is walking away, framed as a distant figure moving through the streets. She pauses before slowly entering a cinema which is playing host to the première of a musical melodrama of which she is the star. The screen is filled with Clara’s face, the close up on screen directly contrasting the lone figure we have just seen wandering towards the première.
- 4/15/2011
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953; 1955, PG, Eureka!)
These invaluable additions to Eureka!'s admirable Masters of Cinema series help us understand the continuity between Michelangelo Antonioni's early work and what followed the controversial 1960 breakthrough of L'Avventura at Cannes. La signore senze camelie (The Lady Without Camelias) belongs in an important tradition of movies about the film industry (it was preceded and followed in Italy by Visconti's Bellissima and Fellini's Otto e mezzo) and stars Lucia Bosè as a movie star trapped between her culturally ambitious husband and her exploitative producers.
In Le Amiche (aka The Girlfriends), his first fully achieved masterpiece, the empathy for and attraction to women join a socialist critique of modern society as the dominant elements in Antonioni's work. Eleonora Rossi Drago plays a working-class beauty returning to her native Turin to open a branch of a Rome couturier. She becomes involved with four local women from the city's haute bourgeoisie and four weak,...
These invaluable additions to Eureka!'s admirable Masters of Cinema series help us understand the continuity between Michelangelo Antonioni's early work and what followed the controversial 1960 breakthrough of L'Avventura at Cannes. La signore senze camelie (The Lady Without Camelias) belongs in an important tradition of movies about the film industry (it was preceded and followed in Italy by Visconti's Bellissima and Fellini's Otto e mezzo) and stars Lucia Bosè as a movie star trapped between her culturally ambitious husband and her exploitative producers.
In Le Amiche (aka The Girlfriends), his first fully achieved masterpiece, the empathy for and attraction to women join a socialist critique of modern society as the dominant elements in Antonioni's work. Eleonora Rossi Drago plays a working-class beauty returning to her native Turin to open a branch of a Rome couturier. She becomes involved with four local women from the city's haute bourgeoisie and four weak,...
- 3/27/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Le Amiche (The Girlfriends) proved a transitory work in Michelangelo Antonioni’s long career as a filmmaker. It not only signalled new intentions and experiments in form, but the characters began to emerge into what would become the iconic existential figure.
Although not as openly modernist as the later films from which he cultivated an international reputation and staked his claim in history, it’s a very modern and outstanding work. Especially given Antonioni’s unusual place in Italian cinema.
It should also be noted Le Amiche derives from a literary source; a novella by Cesare Parvese. Only three of Antonioni’s films came from such origins. There’s a lot to enjoy in Le Amiche, even if the narrative isn’t as beguiling as some of the later, more famous pictures.
Eleonora Rossi-Drago plays Clelia, a Roman living in Turin who is accidentally drawn into the lives of Signora...
Although not as openly modernist as the later films from which he cultivated an international reputation and staked his claim in history, it’s a very modern and outstanding work. Especially given Antonioni’s unusual place in Italian cinema.
It should also be noted Le Amiche derives from a literary source; a novella by Cesare Parvese. Only three of Antonioni’s films came from such origins. There’s a lot to enjoy in Le Amiche, even if the narrative isn’t as beguiling as some of the later, more famous pictures.
Eleonora Rossi-Drago plays Clelia, a Roman living in Turin who is accidentally drawn into the lives of Signora...
- 3/19/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Eureka! are launching two Michelangelo Antonioni classics on dual playing Blu-ray and DVD through their Masters of Cinema label. The Italian director’s second feature film La Signora Senza Camelie and the later work, Le Amiche, will be released to buy from 21st March.
As with most Masters of Cinema titles they come with an excellent array of extra features for film lovers and students to pore over. Below are disc details for both pictures.
Synopsis La Signora Senza Camelie:
The second feature film by cinema master Michelangelo Antonioni, La signora senza camelie [The Lady Without Camelias], expanded the expressive palette of contemporary Italian movies, demonstrating that a personal vision could take an explicitly poetic tack; that “seriousness = neo-realism” was perhaps already turning into something of a truism; and that Antonioni would answer to no-one but himself.
It’s the story of a shopclerk named Clara (played by the captivating Lucia Bosé, also...
As with most Masters of Cinema titles they come with an excellent array of extra features for film lovers and students to pore over. Below are disc details for both pictures.
Synopsis La Signora Senza Camelie:
The second feature film by cinema master Michelangelo Antonioni, La signora senza camelie [The Lady Without Camelias], expanded the expressive palette of contemporary Italian movies, demonstrating that a personal vision could take an explicitly poetic tack; that “seriousness = neo-realism” was perhaps already turning into something of a truism; and that Antonioni would answer to no-one but himself.
It’s the story of a shopclerk named Clara (played by the captivating Lucia Bosé, also...
- 2/4/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Director Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1955 feature "Le Amiche" ("The Girlfriends") has been restored by Cineteca di Bologna.
The Italian drama is currently screening in key cities across North America courtesy new distributors The Film Desk.
Lensed in black-and-white, "Le Amiche" is adapted from author Cesare Pavese's 1949 novella "Tra donne sole" focusing on Rome-based fashion courtier 'Clelia' (Eleonora Rossi Drago), who leaves the city to work at a boutique in Torino.
Antonioni wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Alba De Cespedes, shooting the film on location for the Trionfalcine production company, who distributed the film in Italy through Titanus, without securing a proper North American release at the time.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Le Amiche"...
The Italian drama is currently screening in key cities across North America courtesy new distributors The Film Desk.
Lensed in black-and-white, "Le Amiche" is adapted from author Cesare Pavese's 1949 novella "Tra donne sole" focusing on Rome-based fashion courtier 'Clelia' (Eleonora Rossi Drago), who leaves the city to work at a boutique in Torino.
Antonioni wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Alba De Cespedes, shooting the film on location for the Trionfalcine production company, who distributed the film in Italy through Titanus, without securing a proper North American release at the time.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Le Amiche"...
- 6/11/2010
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
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