Seeds Of Greatness

IN THE early 1960s, Michelangelo Antonioni opened up new possibilities for cinema with L'Avventura (The Adventure), La Notte (The Night) and L'Eclisse (Eclipse). This themed trilogy of films unfolded at a languorous pace to reveal the spaces that exist between characters amidst the eeriness and anxiety of modern life. Now, thanks to two excellent new releases from the Eureka! Masters Of Cinema series, it's possible to observe the seeds of Antonioni's greatness in films he was making a few years earlier within the Italian studio system.

La Signora Senza Camelie (The Lady Without Camelias) dates from 1953 and tells the story of former Milanese shop assistant Clara (played by Lucia Bosé), who experiences a meteoric rise to screen stardom after she lands a small film role. She quickly marries infatuated producer Gianni (Andrea Checchi), who then reveals himself as a control freak (creepy, loathsome men are commonplace in Antonioni's canon). Jealous of her romantic scenes, Gianni presses Clara into starring in a film about Joan Of Arc. When it turns out to be a critical and commercial flop, Clara feels like someone who's been cast adrift in her own life. Le Amiche (The Girlfriends) was made two years later. Clelia (Eleonora Rossi-Drago) leaves Rome to set up a fashion salon in Turin. When she chances upon the scene of an attempted suicide, she finds herself part of a bourgeoise circle of friends who lurch from one melodrama to the next.

La Signora... and Le Amiche are more conventional than Antonioni's later masterpieces, yet the lack of obliqueness in the storytelling (which is actually about something tangible, rather than an absence of something) doesn't disguise the cynicism at the heart of these films. Many of Le Amiche's characters, for example, are insensitive and riddled with class prejudices, while Clara's alienation and her fragile grip on her own identity are due in no small part to piggish male behaviour. In fact, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to describe both films as feminist works.

Like Douglas Sirk was doing at the same time for Hollywood’s Universal Studios, Antonioni's 1950s films steer seemingly straightforward characters and stories into deeper, darker territory. There was still some distance to go before he refined his art – it's a shock to see Antonioni characters talk so much! - but Eureka! are to be applauded for unearthing these previously hidden gems.
La Signora Senza Camelie and Le Amiche are out now in dual format (DVD and Blu-ray) editions.

FILM DIARY: What I’ve been watching in 2011...

La Signora Senza Camelie (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953) (7/10)

Le Amiche (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955) (8/10)

COLIN HOULSON

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