It Happened in the Park

10 novembre > SALA 3 ore 19

Italy, France – 1953 – 35mm – b/n – 98’

Direction: Gianni Franciolini

Screenplay: Armando Curcio, Liana Ferri, Ennio Flaiano, Rodolfo Sonego, Age e Scarpelli, dai racconti di from the short stories Ennio Flaiano, Giorgio Bassani, Ercole Patti, Sergio Amidei

Cinematography: Mario Bava

Editing: Adriana Novelli

Music: Mario Nascimbene

Cast (Episodio Episode Incidente a Villa Borghese): Vittorio De Sica, Giovanna Ralli, Maurizio Arena, Aldo Giuffré, Clara Crispo

Producer: Giorgio G. Agliani

Production: Astoria Film, Productions Sigma Vog

SYNOPSIS

A film in six episodes, all set at Villa Borghese park, in Rome, on the same spring day. In the third episode, Incidente a Villa Borghese, it’s midday when middle-aged lawyer Arturo Cavazzuti is waiting for a date with Virginia, a young girl with whom he is smitten. But she arrives there with her boyfriend, a rough guy who threatens them. The girl’s mother, who is equally unhappy and hostile about the situation, then shows up. One moment Virginia is siding with Cavazzuti in order to make her boyfriend jealous after having an argument with him, the next she denies any interest in the mature lawyer. The situation drags on for a while until the arrival of a policeman who wants to take advantage of the circumstance for personal ends.

CRITICAL NOTE

“In It Happened in the Park (1953) by Gianni Franciolini, [Giovanna Ralli] plays the impulsive and fiery girl who, after an argument with her boyfriend, accepts the advances of a mature lawyer (Vittorio De Sica), thus inaugurating the stereotype of the young female commoner, usually Roman, which appeared again in Le signorine dello 04 and Roman Tales, both directed by Franciolini in 1955.” (Simonetta Paoluzzi, Enciclopedia del Cinema Treccani)