''Love in the City'' () is a 1953 Italian
anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film or a portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of three or more shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme, premise ...
composed of six segments, each with its own director. The segments and filmmakers are: ''Paid Love'' (
Carlo Lizzani
Carlo Lizzani (3 April 1922 – 5 October 2013) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and critic.
Biography
Born in Rome, before World War II Lizzani worked as a scenarist on such films as Roberto Rossellini's '' Germany Year Zero'', ...
), ''Attempted Suicide'' (
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
), ''Paradise for Three Hours'' (
Dino Risi
Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy, and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of ''commedia all'italiana''.
Biography
Risi was born in Milan. He had an ...
), ''Marriage Agency'' (
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...
), ''Story of Caterina'' (
Francesco Maselli
Francesco Maselli (9 December 1930 – 21 March 2023), also known as Citto Maselli, was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Biography
Born into a well educated family (his father was an art critic) originally from the Molise region, Mase ...
and
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, o ...
), and ''Italians Stare'' (
Alberto Lattuada
Mario Alberto Lattuada (; 13 November 1914 – 3 July 2005) was an Italian film director.
Career
Lattuada was born in Vaprio d'Adda, the son of composer Felice Lattuada. He was initially interested in literature, becoming, while still a studen ...
).
Synopsis
;Paid Love
Filmed by Carlo Lizzani, seven Roman prostitutes of different age, some of them single mothers, tell their "stories of abandonment and deceit".
;Attempted Suicide
Five young women, who have tried to commit suicide after being left by their partner, tell and re-enact their stories in front of Michelangelo Antonioni's camera.
;Paradise for Three Hours
Dino Risi depicts the various encounters at a dance hall event which takes place every Sunday evening between 5 and 8.
;Marriage Agency
Federico Fellini tells the story of a journalist doing research on marriage agencies, pretending to be looking for a wife for a rich friend who suffers from
lycanthropy
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...
. To his surprise, he is presented with a prospect only a few days later.
;Story of Caterina
Francesco Maselli and Cesare Zavattini follow Caterina, a young single mother ostracised by her parents, who is put on trial for abandoning her child which she can't feed.
;Italians Stare
A sequence of men reacting to the passage of pretty women, filmed by Alberto Lattuada.
Cast
;Attempted Suicide
* Rita Josa
* Rosanna Carta
* Enrico Pelliccia
* Donatella Marrosu
* Paolo Pacetti
* Nella Bertuccioni
* Lilia Nardi
* Lena Rossi
* Maria Nobili
;Paradise for Three Hours
*
Luisella Boni
Luisella Boni (born 24 July 1935) is an Italian actress.
Born as Luisa Angela Bozzo, Boni debuted in 1952 in Bernard Vorhaus' film ''Finishing School''.
One of the most active actresses in Italian cinema between the early fifties and mid-sixies ...
;Marriage Agency
*
Antonio Cifariello
Antonio Cifariello (19 May 1930 – 12 December 1968) was an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born in Naples, son of the sculptor Filippo Cifariello, Antonio started his career in 1950 as the main actor, credited as Fabio Montale, in ''La s ...
* Livia Venturini
* Maresa Gallo
* Angela Pierro
* Rita Andreana
* Lia Natali
* Ilario Malaschini
*
Cristina Grado
* Sue Ellen Blake
* Silvio Lillo
;Story of Caterina
* Caterina Rigoglioso
;Italians Stare
* Marisa Valenti
*
Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of t ...
*
Mario Bonotti
*
Mara Berni
Mara Berni (born 12 June 1932) is an Italian former stage, television and film actress.
Life and career
Born in Brunate, Como as Mara Bernasconi, Berni debuted on stage as a child actress with the "Compagnia dei Piccoli" directed by Wanda P ...
*
Valeria Moriconi
Valeria Moriconi (née Abbruzzetti; November 15, 1931 – June 15, 2005) was an Italian actress who appeared both in movies and on stage.
Biography
Valeria was born in Iesi, in Marche, central Italy. Her earliest work was as a stage actress. Sh ...
*
Giovanna Ralli
* Patrizia Lari
*
Ugo Tognazzi
Ottavio "Ugo" Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.
He is considered one of the most important faces of Italian comedy together with Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Marcello Mastr ...
*
Raimondo Vianello
Raimondo Vianello (7 May 1922 – 15 April 2010) was an Italian film actor, comedian, and television host. He was a well-known Italian television personality.
Biography
He was born in Rome, but spent his youth in Pula, where his father, an ...
* Edda Evangelisti
* Liliana Poggiali
* Maria Pia Trepaoli
Production and release
Cesare Zavattini, Marco Ferreri and Riccardo Ghione intended ''Love in the City'' as the first issue in a series of a new journal published on celluloid, of which only this one was realised.
The project was a critical and commercial failure on its first release, with French critic
André Bazin
André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. He started to write about movies in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951 ...
being one of the few commentators to write a favorable review, appreciating the concept and the interviewed nonactors.
Other critics questioned the film's authenticity, arguing that the people in front of the camera were obviously following directors' instructions, or attacked it for having the mother of the ''Story of Caterina'' segment re-enact the abandoning of her child.
Initial export copies were missing Carlo Lizzani's segment on prostitution due to censorship issues.
Zavattini noted in retrospect that the film lacked a central idea and common perspective on the theme, partially owed to the fact that the filmmakers had only sporadic contact during production.
The result was a film partly made in a documentary style, partly as a replication of reality, and, in the case of Federico Fellini, staged with professional actors.
Michelangelo Antonioni, director of the second episode, later stated that he only participated in the film as a favour to one of its makers, and commented negatively on what he saw as insincerity on the side of his interviewees.
In 2014, ''Love in the City'' was released on Blu-ray by Raro Video.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Love in the City (1953 Film)
Films directed by Federico Fellini
Films directed by Dino Risi
Films directed by Alberto Lattuada
Films directed by Francesco Maselli
1950s Italian-language films
1953 films
Films with screenplays by Federico Fellini
Films with screenplays by Cesare Zavattini
Films scored by Mario Nascimbene
Italian anthology films
Italian black-and-white films
1950s Italian films