Antonio Pietrangeli: a retrospective

Starting from October 16th until the 24th, at Cinema Trevi, a retrospective will be dedicated to Antonio Pietrangeli, Italian director and screenwriter, father of the commedia all’italiana. After working next to Luchino Visconti in Ossessione, he writes for Rossellini and Lattuada, among others. Later, his debut as a director with Empty Eyes (Il sole negli occhi, 1953), a well-crafted psychological portrait of a maid according to Neorealist style. But he will soon move away from Neorealism towards comedy: The bachelor (Lo scapolo, 1955) with Alberto Sordi is an irresistible comedy, dotted by an underlying bitterness. After that, in It happened in Rome (Souvenir d’Italie, 1957) he directs Vittorio De Sica, Massimo Girotti and Alberto Sordi, while in March’s child (Nata di marzo, 1957) he analyses the relationship of a bourgeois couple. The year after, he directs Adua and friends (Adua e le compagne, 1958), a drama about four former prostitutes who open a trattoria. Then a comedy, Ghosts of Rome(Fantasmi a Roma, 1961) in which a Roman building is populated by ghosts. ​With The girl from Parma (La parmigiana, 1963)Pietrangeli comes back to a female main character, innocent and spontaneous, and depicts Italian society in the Sixties, as he does in La visita (1963). Then The magnificent Cuckold(Il magnifico cornuto, 1964), from Crommelynck’s theatre piece, before one of his best movies: I knew her well (Io la conoscevo bene, 1965). After that, Fata Marta (episode of Le fate, 1966), and his posthumous How, when and with whom (Come, quando, perché, 1966).

The retrospective gives us the invaluable opportunity to appreciate the development of the director’s work, as he moves away from Neorealism to find his own definition of drama and comedy. What strikes us is the image of Italian society which emerges from those films. It takes a great director to provide such precise and vivid images of people (and not characters!) and the world around them, a world that is too far gone.

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