Thursday 21 November at 21:00
Ettore Scola’s poignant drama unfolds in a working-class Roman apartment building during Hitler’s 1938 visit. The story centers on an unlikely friendship between a conservative housewife and a liberal radio broadcaster awaiting deportation. Both individuals are detached from the fascist celebrations, each grappling with their own helplessness in the face of rising Fascism. Scola, in collaboration with cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis, employs a radical visual style to evoke the oppressive atmosphere of the era. The colors are desaturated using a special filter and a printing process developed by Technicolor (ENR), capturing the gray, foggy tones of Scola’s own memories of Rome at the time. This muted palette, symbolizing isolation and oppression, serves as a powerful reflection of the characters’ internal states. With standout performances by Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, stripped of their glamorous personas, the film is a quietly subversive exploration of human resilience and solidarity in the shadow of Fascism. Scola’s masterpiece is an emotional and visually striking meditation on resistance, fear, and unlikely connections.
Ettore Scola (1931–2016) was an Italian director and screenwriter known for films like A Special Day (1977) and We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974). He won a Golden Globe and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Scola began his career in 1953 as a screenwriter, collaborating with Dino Risi on Il Sorpasso (1962). Over his 40-year career, he directed nearly 40 films, including That Night in Varennes (1982) and Passione d'amore (1981). A left-wing activist, he served as Minister of Culture for Italy's Communist Party in 1989.
