Love in the City

Six segments on love and desire in Rome. In one, people who attempted suicide give their reasons. In another, three hours of paradise are sought in a provincial dance hall. A journalist goes to a marriage agency posing as a prospective husband. The true story of a young unmarried mother is dramatised. The techniques of men watching women in the street are catalogued. The film is an anthology, with segments directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, Carlo Lizzani, Dino Risi, and Francesco Maselli with Cesare Zavattini. The idea was Zavattini's; the aim was to use cinema like a magazine and start from real events. The segments combine interviews with real people and scenes played by actors. The result is uneven; some parts are very strong and some are weak. Who it's for: Viewers who like Italian neorealism, anthology films, and Rome in the 1950s. Who it's not for: There is a wide gap in quality between the segments. In some of them the method also turns real people into a spectacle.