La bella di Lodi

It is a story about Roberta, a young and beautiful landowner from Lombardy, and Franco, an unscrupulous and opportunistic mechanic. They meet on the beach in Forte dei Marmi and they are at once attracted to each other. The story develops through dates and getaways of the two protagonists, who on Roberta’s “Alfetta” wonder around the Autostrada del Sole, in motels, luxury hotels, with the financial miracle on the background. But Roberta doesn’t forget her business and thinks about using Franco’s qualities, so she decides to buy a garage and the ending is going to be happy even if a little expected.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala

In the first years of the ‘60s it was almost impossible not to make cinema, it was an easy adventure to run into. Actually I’ve always loved it, I would like to alternate it with theatre even now.
At the time I had just ended working as Zurlini’s assistant director on Cronaca Familiare, around me there were friends such as Peppino Rotunno and Zurlini himself, who pushed me towards directing a film and I managed to do it in around 10 minutes.
During that period, cinema was the promised land; later I have never did it again, because I don’t have neither the patience nor the ability of “closing the deal”: “patience” and “head for business” are essential in a film.
Arbasino and I were already good friends and we had worked together writing something for cabaret and for theatre. La bella di Lodi had just been released in the pages of “Mondo” and thinking that it could be an interesting idea for a film, I went myself to Alfredo Bini, who was a great producer, brilliant, he had just made Accattone and I nuovi angeli. I showed two plots to Bini, one originally written by me and the project with Arbasino. It took Bini a day to reply, he didn’t want to make us wait: “I’d choose La bella di Lodi, we’re signing the contract tomorrow”.
The film didn’t cause me many troubles as a director. After a couple of jobs as Zurlini’a assistant, I could properly direct a camera. And then I had Tonino Delli Colli as director of photography, who was a real guarantee in many ways. But the actual weakness of the film was the screenplay. Arbasino and I made a too sophisticated script, too curt, not explicit nor spectacular enough.
And I heavily felt that while we were shooting. Secondly I had some issues with the cast, because I never really found the male protagonist. Aranda was a good professional, but Belmondo didn’t come and he would have been the perfect performer.
Anyway, I believe that the film had many qualities as well. First of all, it saw the economic boom coming, reporting the changes in the Italian society from an interesting point of view: it was a boom that was supposed to be as a happy storm on the background. Another matter of interest was the idea of giving it the Autostrada del Sole as its spine. Of course, if those were the values, there was much more to it.
The same script that I was complaining about had a sort of modernity in its curtness, in its elliptical shape. But maybe the best quality of the Bella di Lodi was that it was a little too anticipated and that was also its flaw. It was more an experiment than a finished and marketable work. The relationship with Stefania Sandrelli was very happy as well. She had a great instinct, which is still the main feature of her acting, an extraordinary vital instinct in performing herself, not because she wasn’t playing a part, but because she was able to bring a surprising form of herself into that role.
Anyway, the film was received in contradictory ways. The sophisticated part of the critics made positive reviews, while the establishment criticized it without any flattery, even if not in a mean way, because they were still connected to a more conventional kind of cinema, and it reported very little participation of the audience. Maybe it was really too soon for the public, and as an experiment it was not only too advanced but we also had too immature capabilities to support it and to show its wider level.
I still feel a sort of affection towards La bella di Lodi, for the happiness that brought it to life and for the pain which lead it to death.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala

Director: Mario Missiroli.
Plot: dal romanzo di Alberto Arbasino.
Screenplay: Alberto Arbasino, Mario Missiroli.
Fotografia (vistavision): Tonino Delli Colli.
Art director: Danilo Donati.
Editor: Nino Baragli.
Music: Piero Umiliani.
Cast and characters: Stefania Sandrelli (Roberta), Angel Aranda (Franco), Gianni Clerici (Giorgio), Elena Borgo (la nonna), Cesare Di Montignano (il nonno), Maria Monti (Anna Maria), Giuliana Pogliani (la zia), Mario Missiroli, Renato Montalbano.
Production company: Alfredo Bim per la Arco Film.
Italian distribution: Cineriz.