Gli indifferenti

The film depicts the uneventful life of widow Maria Grazia (Paulette Goddard) and her two adult children Carla (Claudia Cardinale) and Michele (Tomas Milian) on the eve of fascism. Maria Grazia is cheated on by her cynical lover Leo (Rod Steiger), who pesters her daughter Carla and tries to drain the formerly rich family of the last of their possessions. Alberto Moravia’s 1929 debut novel is regarded as one of the first existentialist novels. The two big themes that run through all of Moravia’s following works – the power of sex and money – are already contained within it. The film is equally worth seeing due to the outstanding visual compositions by Gianni di Venanzo. Di Venanzo was the cinematographer for Antonioni, Fellini, Monicelli and Rosi amongst others before he died on a film shoot in 1966 at the age of 45. (hjf)