Italy 1955 Color 35mm 90minutes Director Michelangelo Antonioni Screenwriters Michelangelo Antonioni, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Alba De Cespedes Photography Gianni di Venanzo Music Giovanni Fusco Cast Eleanora Rossi Drago, Valentina Cortese, Yvonne Furneaux, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi Le Amiche (The Girlfriends) After achieving success as a fashion designer in Rome, Clelia returns to turn. When she finds that the girl in the next-door hotel room has tried to kill herself, she is drawn into a new set of friends, their love affairs and shifting relationships. Antonioni's talent for presenting female characters and their anxieties in depth is again to the fore, while his ability to set people meaningfully against landscapes is confirmed by the extended sequence of an afternoon on the beach. The camera here weaves in and out among the group as, isolated from their elaborate city background, they are laid bare for us in an empty world of bleak, grey shades. One of Antonioni's greatest films, and one which has hardly dated at all. Silver Lion, Venice, 1955 The Hong Kong Arts Centre DVD: Amazon.com Back to Archive