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Rating: One can consider Mario Alberto Lattuada as one of the main figures of Italian cinematic art and beyond, with at least 35 films to his credit. This is one of his early works, dating back to the now far away 1947, co-authored in the screenplay by Federico Fellini (at that time not yet a director, but ehm, he would become one…). Among the cast, besides the main actors: Aldo Fabrizi, Alberto Sordi, Yvonne Sanson, we find two almost debuting and very young actresses: the seventeen-year-old Silvana Mangano and the twenty-year-old Gina Lollobrigida (recently passed away).
The plot is derived from the almost namesake novel by Gabriele D'Annunzio from 1892 and indeed the story is set between the late 1800s and the beginning of the new 20th century.
In this film, Lattuada distanced himself from any previous trends or movements to start following his own fundamental poetics, that is, the unscrupulous individual in contrast to an inert and indifferent society to everything. Just like in his other previous films, here we already see almost all those stylistic elements included in his future directions, such as the internal balance of the frame, highlighting details, and the wise use of lighting, calibrated camera movements, and controlled final cuts in editing, these will be the hallmarks to which he will remain faithful.
From the beginning, I am captivated by the unfolding of the story within archive offices similar to mine (with due differences due to the era) even in the figures of the staff, with the difference that at least here, we don’t only have men, thank God. We see a forty-year-old Aldo Fabrizi and a thirty-year-old Ave Ninchi not yet obese in their physique, the film flows quickly in its turning points, the only pity is the dialogues, which are dubbed in a way that highlights an out-of-sync lip movement, but otherwise, it is very captivating and engaging.
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