Le Amiche (1955)

 Michelangelo Antonioni's "Le Amiche"

While watching "Le Amiche," I felt that it was a sort of a proto-"La Dolce Vita." However, where Federico Fellini fills with "La Dolce Vita" with maximalism, Michelangelo Antonioni fills "Le Amiche" with restraint. This restraint was perceived by critics at the time of being a limitation of the film. But in retrospect, this restraint is lauded and is properly recognized as a style that Antonioni would mature further in his career, especially with his '60's films. 

The film is an ensemble but is mostly centered on the character of Clelia, who discovers that a young woman named Rosetta in the room next to her has attempted suicide. Clelia, who is visiting Turin from Rome in order to supervise an opening of a fashion salon, becomes well acquainted with the group of Rosetta's friends. The film encircles the interpersonal dramas amongst the friends until Rosetta finally succeeds in committing suicide. 

The reason why I feel like "Le Amiche" is a proto-"La Dolce Vita" is due to the central emotional theme. Despite the upper-class situations, from the glamorous fashion salons, art scene, and mundane upper-class shenanigans, there is a certain emptiness and hollowness to these glitzy, extravagant lives. Clelia, who comes from a poorer background, acts as a foil to the upper-class women. These women were once the subject of her envy. Through her hard dedication to her work, she was able to pull herself up out of poverty and has now become a contemporary to these women. However, these women have settled into their comfortable lives and have now become callous and selfish, acting on their own individual impulses to satisfy their restless mundanity. 

This analysis of these superficial characters acts as a catalyst for Antonioni to analyze post-war Italian society. As Tony Pipolo argues in his essay for Criterion, "the women's view of marriage and children as dead ends anticipates the unspecified malaise suffered by the heroines in Antonioni's mature films." This malaise that he references acts as a general sentiment to the restless nature of post-war Italy and its need to fill that malaise with selfish and sensational wants. Underneath the glitzy fashion, high art, and well-to-do lives lie a stagnant and restless dissatisfaction. As Pipolo points out, Antonioni "uses the fashion world in 'Le Amiche' to reflect the glamorous facade of the bourgeois atmosphere and the superficial nature of the characters' lives."

Circling back to the 'restraint' many critics felt held the film back, I would argue that this restraint further enhances these themes. Antonioni's more cool and tentative approach to the material is a direct contrast to the grittier neo-realist aesthetic of his Italian contemporaries. The neo-realist aesthetic would not have suited the bourgeois persona and its glamor. Antonioni's shots are crisp and saturated. There is a visual elegance to the style that echoes its subjects. 

"Le Amiche" was just another stepping stone for Antonioni as he ventures into an aesthetic and style that he would eventually become globally known for. He continues to investigate the emptiness of bourgeois and upper-class post-war culture and the social stagnation of Italy. His characters are well-off and have the entire world at their fingertips, yet they can not seem to actually satisfy themselves. Perhaps this is why I remarked that this film is a proto-"La Dolce Vita."