Customer Reviews

Le Amiche

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those approaching it in 'historical reverse', that is AFTER knowing the 'Trilogy' ("L'Avventura" "La Notte" "L'Eclisse") and "Il Deserto Rosso", "Le Amiche" is striking in the way it prefigures nearly all the themes the director would continue to explore in his somewhat more daring works of the 1960s. In the character of Clelia (played by the beautiful Eleonora Rossi Drago) can be seen the ancestor of Monica Vitti's Claudia in "L'Avventura": she is an outsider, curious and compassionate, who is coming to terms with her own sense of self. Gabriele Ferzetti plays Lorenzo, a frustrated artist, much like his lost architect in the same famous film. And in Rosetta (Madeleine Fisher) is prefigured the enigmatic Anna go 'goes missing' on the immortal volcanic island. Yvonne Furneaux's Momina embodies the superficial leisure class characters with whom Antonioni will continue to populate his next three or four films. And Nene (Valentina Cortese) acts out the director's great theme of forgiveness.
But it is not just in the characters that "Le Amiche" points toward the future. There are many scenes of wandering, along city streets, or beaches. Casual sexuality it presented not for its sensual or aesthetic appeal, but as an empty attempt to connect. And the great chasm of miscommunication between men and women is on full view. Yet, even in 1955 the director knows that all is not black and white. Characters of the same gender don't really understand one another either. The film is posing a difficult question: is it possible to 'be yourself' and still need others? Clelia finds a difficult answer, while Nene seems to find its mirror image.
And speaking of mirrors, the famous Antonioni 'doubling' is here in germ form as well. In the very opening shot, Clelia looks into the hotel bathroom mirror while drawing her bath: she is about to find her self divided in her feelings about her soon-to-be new friends and her old home town of Torino. Later, she regards her reflection in a shop window mirror before deciding to pursue a romance with the handsome Carlo (Ettore Manni).
Possibly most interesting of all is Rosetta, who, in attempting suicide, is trying to 'disappear'. The film makes it more than clear that this character has no real sense of self: she is dependent upon the affections of a man and the perceived loyalty of her mostly vacant friendships. There is a telling scene with Lorenzo in which she feeds off his flattery. And, in a beautifully acted scene aboard a train, Clelia tries to help her understand the importance of connection to others, never realizing how unstable Rosetta truly is.

Antonioni would in his next feature, "Il Grido", begin to streamline his technique. "Le Amiche" has far more characters than he would later prefer, and they talk constantly. There are virtually none of the characteristic, nearly silent sequences that will inform his later works. Nor does landscape play as commanding a role it will assume in the 1960s. While the two main narrative threads of "Le Amiche" (Clelia and Rosetta/Lorenzo/Nene) will be reduced to one for nearly all his remaining films.
Complex, dramatic, and visually seductive, "Le Amiche" is not just a fine early work by Antonioni, it deserves a place beside his more famous achievements.

The DVD issue of "Le Amiche" is up to the best of Image Entertainment in terms of quality of the sharp and clean transfer. There are no extras to speak of, but it well worth having such a fascinating film in the new format.

Le Amiche was made in 1955, and was the first significant film from Michaelangelo Antonioni. This film follows a Roman woman named Clelia who, in an effort to improve her life, moves from the city to work at a small shop. She finds the lives of the small town is much less pleasant than she suspected. The women that she befriends are allowed to show a surprising range of emotions, especially for a film made in the fifties. The film seems to suggest that you cannot have a sense of self if you rely upon others. It definitely feels like an Antonioni film, even if it's more talky than his average work. The plot never really feels melodramatic, even though the events could easily make it feel that way. I would reccomend the film highly.

Extremely impressive, fully realised 50s Antonioni. Less sparse than his later work but superb script, direction and acting from ensemble cast. Seen entirely from the female perspective, adult, subtle, complex, modern. As ever with Antonioni, a wonderful use of space and location. The mid-fifties fashions are attractive adding another layer to the visual pleasures. Extremely entertaining, warm, human, approachable, not nearly as cold, "difficult" and distancing as his later work and reputation. Not unlike Ophuls in some ways. A cool melodrama. (Why only four stars? Four is good for me. Be sparing with your hyperbole or what's left for the genuine masterpieces?)

Although it may not be considered "classic" Antonioni as much as his Sixties films, the interplay of the four or five lead actresses in Le Amiche is fascinating to watch, particularly Eleonora Rossi Drago as Clelia, who exudes a very grounded inner radiance. She is often more in the observer role to other people's dramas, yet finally the film is about her and her own quiet achievement of full independence. I find her a satisfying precursor of the Monica Vitti character in Antonioni's mature films. Le Amiche is atypical Antonioni because it's full of dialogue and crowded with characters, as opposed to spare and formalistic, but it's none the worse for that. I suspect this film has been somewhat underrated as it predates the full-blown development of the director's characteristic style. I find it compulsively watchable; it's definitely worth owning.

Lighter (at times), more emotionally complex, yet symbolically simpler than later films by Antonioni. This reminded me more of Fellini, Woody Allen, and (in the lighter, early moments) even Almodovar.

It goes without saying that the film is great looking (could Antonioni frame a bad shot?). And it has lots of plot, surprising from a filmmaker who later ran from traditional plot and story. Lovers change hands, lives rise and fall among five female friends (artists, clothing designers, etc).

This is labeled a masterpiece by some, but to me it felt a bit too soapy, and some of the characters and performances a bit one note or on-the-nose to raise it to quite that level. I was never bored, and the images were thrilling, but I didn't find myself caring deeply on a conventional level, nor drawn in on a more intellectual, poetic level as the later Antonioni films do. But all that said, I'm still glad I saw it.

Based on Cesare Pavese's novella The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese (New York Review Books Classics), this film examines the complex interplay and emotional intensity of relations between a bourgeois group of women. The pervasive cynicism within the novella is concentrated in Momina's character. The film also emphasizes the burgeoning and evolving role of the independent woman. This early work shows the development of Antonioni's unique framing and narration methods, particularly in the beach scene. It's rare to have an ensemble cast deliver such strong performances!

It is understandable but somewhat unfair that Antonioni is best known for his more overtly "modernist" films from "L'avventura" (1959) onwards: his earlier films are impressive too. "Le Amiche" (The Girl Friends, 1955) is one of his greatest achievements, an involving, indeed moving, depiction of the relationships between a group of women in fifties Turin, and the various men in their lives. The director uses staging in depth and subtle camera movements with tremendous assurance and sensitivity: the frequent shots of several characters in one frame never seem cluttered, the positioning of the actors in relation to each other, and their individual behavioural mannerisms, become meaningfully expressive of the complexities of their liaisons; and the mobile imagery is realised with meticulous fluency and elegance that never seem affected. The "feminist" aspect of the film is remarkable too: Antonioni's view of his heroines is not uncritical, but he is sympathetic to their concerns, their problems, their disappointments. By contrast, most of the men are self-centred and manipulative. When at the end career-girl Clelia (the most likeable of the women) returns to her job in Rome rather than marry Carlo (the least dislikeable of the men) it is sad, but not tragic! Tragedy is present in the film in the character of Rosetta, whose suicide attempt in an adjoining hotel room is the catalyst for Clelia to meet and become friends with the other women. Clelia offers Rosetta more substantial support and sympathy than the rest, but to little avail - Rosetta cannot escape her doomed love for Lorenzo the artist. He is flattered by the attention, especially in the light of the ego-bruising realisation that his wife Nene is achieving greater success than him in the world of art. He enters into an affair with Rosetta but is not prepared to leave Nene, so ... well, get the DVD and find out for yourself what happens!

"Le Amiche" ("The Girlfriends") focuses primarily on a group of women that come together as a result of the attempted suicide of a mutual friend. Momina de Stefani (Yvonne Furneaux) is the graceful yet calculating, self-appointed hostess and leader of the pack (that persona being the opposite of the character of Emma that Furneaux would portray 5 years later in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita"). Clelia (Eleanora Drago Rossi), a Roman couturier who leaves Rome to work at a boutique in her native Torino, is the protagonist/outsider, who is determined to put her career before any kind of love life.

The strongest scenes are those in which "The Girlfriends" interact in social situations; for example Chapter 4 (the beach outing) and particularly in Chapter 7 (Momina's party); the girlfriends being comprised of The Career Woman, The Man Eater Libertine, The Giggly Bimbo, The Reserved Artist, and the Melancholic Lost Soul. The tension escalates and culminates in two noteworthy scenes near the end of the film: (1) Clelia confronts Momina about her lack of sensitivity in dealing with fragile Rosetta Savoni (Madeleine Fischer); (1) Lorenzo (Gabriele Ferzetti) and Cesare Pedoni (Franco Fabrizi) start a fight in a restaurant over the subject of "success", provoking the film's ultimate tragedy.

Having seen Antonioni's trilogy ("L'Avventura," "La Notte" and "L'Eclisse"), I am aware of this director's penchant for blank spaces without dialogue. I liked "Le Amiche", but the tone of this picture more closely resembles the formative years of the Nouvelle Vague than it does classic, 1960's Antonioni. And it is a world away from the infamous "Zabriskie Point" (1970). "Le Amiche" opens and closes with wistful, jazzy music composed by Giovanni Fusco; music is used sparingly in this film, as one would expect from the maestro of cinematic silences.

Stephen C. Bird, author of "Hideous Exuberance: A Satire"

If you are a fan of the great Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, you have never heard of "Le Amiche" and are buying this DVD because of the director, you are in for a disappointment. There are good reasons why you haven't heard of this film! Sporting a great black & white DVD transfer by Image, the movie is an early effort that goes nowhere and is ultimately unsatisfying. While the acting is adequate, and it is amusing to get a good view of Italy in the 1950s, the story is poor and superficial (the film is based in a story "The Girlfriends.") Ostensibly dealing with the same subjects that Antonioni will continue to revisit in later movies, this one fails to get into any of them with any depth.

In summary: The movie gets ** two stars, the DVD quality gets **** four stars. If you can rent it cheaply, give it a try, otherwise pass.