The Lady Without Camelias by Michelangelo Antonioni
The title, a play on the name of the Alexandre Dumas fils novel, The Lady of the Camellias, suggests that film actress Clara Manni (Lucia Bosé), will never receive the special attention given to great dramatic actresses; women like Greta Garbo, who in 1937 played Camille in the George Cukor film of the same name.
Manni, a popular enough actress due to her stunning looks and wasp-waisted figure, nevertheless fails to break past the judgmental regard of critics and those high in her profession. After marrying a director, Gianni Franchi (Andrea Checchi), he begins to exert control over her career and life, wanting her out of the humdrum melodramas she's previously starred in. He puts her in something big, a new version of the Joan of Arc story. A flop, Clara Manni's film career stands on thin ice for a while, a period when she has an affair with a diplomat who simply turns out to be enamored with the idea of getting it on with a film star, rather than actually caring about her.
After her husband attempts suicide, she lives adrift from the film community, divorcing Gianni, who manages to recover, becoming a successful filmmaker again. Clara wants back into the industry, on her terms, as she turns down script after script, finally going after the much sought after lead role in Gianni Franchi's new film. She'll become a "serious" actress, finally, or so she hopes, but her ex-husband, though kind to her, is in negotiation with a "big American star" to play the role.
Desperate to get back into the business, Clara accepts an offer to star in Slave Girls of the Pyramids, a film project we know nothing about other than that the title suggests "B movie."
In the end, famous for her looks, she smiles for publicity shots, a mask covering emptiness and failure.
Michelangelo Antonioni in 1953 directed this grim drama. Since I have such high regard for this filmmaker, I wanted this movie to be better than it is. His second feature film, the second in a row also starring the fine, elegant actress Lucia Bosé whose every move is like liquid, La signora senza camelie does have a few Antonioni signature touches--long shots of empty streets, depictions of upper crust shallowness, abrasive and weak male characters contrasting with a strong female lead--but the film mostly feels like an average drama that would've seemed better as a film if a lesser director had made it.
Granted, the great films of his career, Le Amiche, L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, Il deserto rosso, Blowup, The Passenger, Identification of a Woman, were all made later on. Still, it was interesting to note how Antonioni's early work was so much noisier with dialogue than in his later films. Glimpses of the emptiness and abstractions of his later films come here and there in this film: the huge two story house where Gianni and Clara live, a spacious white place with a staircase that looks more like something in an art museum than in a comfortable home. Their bedroom has an extremely high ceiling and a balcony with another stairway the color of bone.
This kind of architecture, and the wealthy people in it and surrounding it, can be seen in his 1961 film La Notte, a much better film about a disintegrating marriage.
Even so, I'm very glad I finally saw this film, as it completes my experience of having seen all of Antonioni's 1950s features.
Vic Neptune
The title, a play on the name of the Alexandre Dumas fils novel, The Lady of the Camellias, suggests that film actress Clara Manni (Lucia Bosé), will never receive the special attention given to great dramatic actresses; women like Greta Garbo, who in 1937 played Camille in the George Cukor film of the same name.
Manni, a popular enough actress due to her stunning looks and wasp-waisted figure, nevertheless fails to break past the judgmental regard of critics and those high in her profession. After marrying a director, Gianni Franchi (Andrea Checchi), he begins to exert control over her career and life, wanting her out of the humdrum melodramas she's previously starred in. He puts her in something big, a new version of the Joan of Arc story. A flop, Clara Manni's film career stands on thin ice for a while, a period when she has an affair with a diplomat who simply turns out to be enamored with the idea of getting it on with a film star, rather than actually caring about her.
After her husband attempts suicide, she lives adrift from the film community, divorcing Gianni, who manages to recover, becoming a successful filmmaker again. Clara wants back into the industry, on her terms, as she turns down script after script, finally going after the much sought after lead role in Gianni Franchi's new film. She'll become a "serious" actress, finally, or so she hopes, but her ex-husband, though kind to her, is in negotiation with a "big American star" to play the role.
Desperate to get back into the business, Clara accepts an offer to star in Slave Girls of the Pyramids, a film project we know nothing about other than that the title suggests "B movie."
In the end, famous for her looks, she smiles for publicity shots, a mask covering emptiness and failure.
Michelangelo Antonioni in 1953 directed this grim drama. Since I have such high regard for this filmmaker, I wanted this movie to be better than it is. His second feature film, the second in a row also starring the fine, elegant actress Lucia Bosé whose every move is like liquid, La signora senza camelie does have a few Antonioni signature touches--long shots of empty streets, depictions of upper crust shallowness, abrasive and weak male characters contrasting with a strong female lead--but the film mostly feels like an average drama that would've seemed better as a film if a lesser director had made it.
Granted, the great films of his career, Le Amiche, L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, Il deserto rosso, Blowup, The Passenger, Identification of a Woman, were all made later on. Still, it was interesting to note how Antonioni's early work was so much noisier with dialogue than in his later films. Glimpses of the emptiness and abstractions of his later films come here and there in this film: the huge two story house where Gianni and Clara live, a spacious white place with a staircase that looks more like something in an art museum than in a comfortable home. Their bedroom has an extremely high ceiling and a balcony with another stairway the color of bone.
This kind of architecture, and the wealthy people in it and surrounding it, can be seen in his 1961 film La Notte, a much better film about a disintegrating marriage.
Even so, I'm very glad I finally saw this film, as it completes my experience of having seen all of Antonioni's 1950s features.
Vic Neptune
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