I delfini

In a provincial town in central Italy, young people belonging to the rich industrial bourgeoisie spend their days battling boredom and waiting to work in the flourishing family business so that they can live the same life as their parents. It’s only the story’s narrator Anselmo (Gérard Blain), who would like to try his hand at being an artist, that resists the pre-determined course of life and his father’s values and wealth, which is based on the appropriation of Jewish possessions according to the racial laws. Fedora comes from much more modest beginnings, and her mother wants to marry her off as soon as possible. Fedora observes from afar how the “dolphins” drift around with a mixture of admiration and envy, until cynical young Ferrari driver Alberto (Tomas Milian) makes a bet that he can bed Fedora the very same day, which seems to bring movement to the fixed nature of the class boundaries. (hjf)