Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy, 1955)

The international breakthrough of Michelangelo Antonioni in the 1960s, which made him the world’s most notorious cult filmmaker, also largely overshadowed his earlier films, including this gem, which has rarely been shown in this country. Yet in this tale of desperate upper-class Italian housewives are to be found all of the great artist’s concerns embodied in his later, better known works. In Le Amiche, Antonioni explores the inner lives of female characters with a story that centers around Clelia, who comes from a working class background but now holds an important position in a fashion salon. While on a business trip to Turin, in the hotel room next door, a young woman has attempted suicide. Clelia befriends her, thus becoming introduced to the circle of her socialite girlfriends, including the cynical Momina and the more sympathetic Nene, with their serial affairs and charming but distanced take on life. Nowhere else in Antonioni’s films has an ensemble of characters woven a more complex web of relationships. Antonioni’s genius for visual storytelling is in evidence here too, especially in the famous scene at the seashore that involves all the characters, their complex relationships echoed in the camera movements, composition and positioning of the actors, the techniques that have set Antonioni apart as a peerless cinematic craftsman.

The Cineteca di Bologna has made a new, digitally restored print from the original black-and-white 35mm camera negatives, creating the best possible circumstances for rediscovering this underappreciated classic. Le Amiche will be presented as part of the Cinema Visionaries program, a traveling screening series created to celebrate motion pictures that have been preserved or restored with funding from The Film Foundation and Gucci.

Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Alba de Cespedes. Photographed by Gianni Di Venanzo. With Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi.

Tickets are $10 for valid SFFS members (memberships must be valid through the end of the Festival), $12.50 for non-members and $11 for seniors, students and persons with disabilities.

Castro Theatre
Sunday, April 26, 3:00 pm