Le Amiche

Description

Academy Award-winning director Michelangelo Antonioni (Blow Up, Beyond the Clouds) explores women's evolving role in society and the conflict between love and career in this engrossing drama. Clelia, a beautiful young woman who lands her dream job in a glamourous Italian fashion house, soon finds herself plunged into a cruel world of phony, shallow people. The only honesty in her life is the pure love offered by Carlo, a young, socially impoverished assistant architect. But is it enough? With its fascinating, multi-layered story, rich characterizations and superb performances, "Le Amiche" remains one of Antonioni's most beloved works.

Customer Reviews:

early Antonioni.......2007-03-18

Already in 1955, when 'Le Amiche' (= Italian for 'the girlfriends') was shot, 42-year old Michelangelo Antonioni focused on the subject he later gained world fame with. His plot in this movie deals with difficulties in connecting between people, caused by the pressures of social acceptance.

'Le Amiche' also shows Antonioni's trademark-framing, by magnificently picturing the plot in architecture and space. By taking his time to do so. All supplemented here by the fashion of 1955, displayed in the Italian town of Torino.

Apart from that, 'Le Amiche' lovingly takes you back to fifties' Europe. A society entirely gone by now, Antonioni evokes vivid childhood memories for those who were around in those days.

A Cool Melodrama.......2006-10-20

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?)

Underrated gem.......2005-06-28

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.

Great DVD transfer of a disappointing Antonioni movie..........2002-01-26

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.

FIlm=4.5 Stars/ DVD=3 Stars.......2001-12-19

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.

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