Il bell'Antonio

Antonio is a name everyone in Catania knows; handsome, he has lived in Rome and countless stories are told about him and women. His father is proud of him. Antonio comes home and is married to Barbara, the most beautiful girl in the city. A year passes and the marriage is not consummated. The girl remains a virgin and the matter becomes the business first of the families, then of the church, then of the whole city. Antonio explains nothing. For his father the question is not his son's happiness but what has become of his own name. Mauro Bolognini directs. Pier Paolo Pasolini and Gino Visentini adapted the screenplay from the novel by Vitaliano Brancati. Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Pierre Brasseur and Rina Morelli are in the cast. It is an Italian and French co-production. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. The narrative is set in Sicily and aims directly at a social order built on manhood. The matter it treats is reputation; nobody asks what Antonio feels, everyone thinks about what will be said. Mastroianni plays the character quiet and ashamed; the part is the reverse of the attractive man he was known for. The film stands between humour and melodrama and does not fix its tone. The father is the narrative's sharpest criticism and the film makes him ridiculous. Claudia Cardinale's character is also looking for the right to decide for herself. The ending saves nobody. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, the dialogue dense, and it asks for the context of its period. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian cinema and social satire. Who it is not for: it is slow, talky, and the ending bitter.