Una storia milanese

Giampiero is a young and rich middle-class boy, who carries all the limits and weaknesses of his environment. He is smart and dynamic, but he is unable to have an active and demanding attitude towards life. Valeria comes from a less sophisticated environment, but she is indecisive and confused as well: she would like to have a job, but she knows she can give up only in exchange for a good marriage. Their love story develops in the winter season, in a Milan that feels imprisoned by the myths of the financial miracle. Their relationship ends almost tragically: the girl gives up on Giampiero and leaves him to go have an abortion in Switzerland.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

I made my first steps like everyone else did. I was an actor in Terza liceo by Emmer, Maselli’s co-screenwriter for Gli Sbadati, Castellani’s assistant for Il brigante; I was also my uncle’s assistant in theatre, for the Morelli-Stoppa company. (...)
I shoot in a very traditional way. I point the camera to the actors’ faces. I try to capture the story of the characters they perform, step by step. If there is a good actor in front of me, I am tempted to shoot long scenes without any cut. Through my camera, I want to tell stories to the audience without being boring with refined and disconcerting technical solutions. Becoming a director was an act of will, because I had something to say.
I’ve always tried to work with natural light: my vision of Milan is neither documentary nor Baroque. The actors, instead, think they have the right to act as they wish. I am not a “ rebel”. I shot in the most traditional way possible. (...)
We are all children of Neorealism. Zavattini’s break was essential, but now there is the need of walking other paths. Zavattini can still make some films, but with De Sica. Young people like me have other needs, we want to structure our stories from the inside. (...)
I think that the Nouvelle Vague is an external phenomenon, the advertising effort to bring the French cinema out of a deadly stagnation. Despite all of that, young Italian creators owe everything to the Nouvelle Vague: without it, we still wouldn’t have any work-related chance.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala
Tullio Kezich
Actually, our main goal was to produce films. It was the right time, the market was great, cinema existed, young people were extremely interested and we thought that Lombardo’s policy was still influenced by the old cinema, by wrong decisions, while we thought that cinema had to be made in more restricted financial terms, we really believed in low budget and in a certain new talent that had to stand out.
Our first operation was Una storia Milanese by Eriprando Visconti. He had a draft of a script and also a producer, Nello Santi, but he couldn’t close the film because Santi couldn’t manage to produce it in Milan, there were huge complications. So we came up with the idea of providing Eriprando the troupe that had made Il posto and Olmi was involved as well as an actor.
I believe that all the films of the 22 dicembre were quite thought through. It is enough to consider, for example, that Una storia Milanese has John Lewis’ musical score and a performance by Romolo Valli, who won the Nastro d’Argento.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Director: Eriprando Visconti.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Renzo Rosso, Vittorio Sermonti, Eriprando Visconti.
Dialogues: Vittorio Sermonti, Renzo Rosso.
Fotografia (vistavision): Lamberto Caimi.
Art director: Ettore Lombardi.
Editor: Mario Serandrei.
Music: John Lewis.
Cast and characters: Danièle Gaubert (Valeria), Enrico Thibaut (Giampiero Gessner), Romolo Valli (ing. Gessner), Lucilla Morlacchi (Francesca Gessner), Regina Bianchi (madre di Valeria), Giancarlo Dettori (Dario), Rossana Armani (Vicki), Ermanno Olmi (Turchi).
Production company: Alberto Soffientini per la 22 dicembre S.p.A.-Galatea.
Italian distribution: Paramount.