News

Italian distribution and production company Notorious Pictures is expanding into the TV series sphere by snapping up rights to buzzy literary property “Forbidden Notebook,” a 1952 novel by Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Céspedes that has been recently rediscovered and successfully republished in English.

De Céspedes has been described by the New York Times as “a bestselling novelist and political activist in her native Italy” admired for her sensitive depictions of women whose recently rediscovered work “has lost none of its subversive force.” She is considered a source of inspiration for Elena Ferrante, the Italian writer with legions of fervent fans around the world and whose four “Neapolitan Novels” have been adapted into the long-running “My Brilliant Friend” TV series by Italy’s Rai and HBO.

“We are pleased to announce the ambitious and important serial development of de Céspedes’ ‘Forbidden Notebook,’ said Notorious Pictures CEO Stefano Bethlen, who added that “we...

Michelangelo Antonioni's pre-international breakthrough drama is as good as anything he's done, a flawlessly acted and directed story of complex relationships -- that include his 'career' themes before the existential funk set in. It's one of the best-blocked dramatic films ever... the direction is masterful. Le amiche Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 817 1955 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux, Anna Maria Pancani, Luciano Volpato, Maria Gambarelli, Ettore Manni. Cinematography Gianni De Venanzo Film Editor Eraldo Da Roma Original Music Giovanni Fusco Written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alba de Cespedes from a book by Cesare Pavese Produced by Giovanni Addessi Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's time to stop being so intimidated by Michelangelo Antonioni. His epics of existential alienation La notte, L'eclisse and...

Cesare Pavese's 1949 short novel, Among Women Only, is a queasy first-person narrative about memory and loss and social hierarchies and futility. I call it queasy because its narrator, Clelia, a fashionista supervising the opening of a shop in her native Turin, where she's returning to from Rome after an absence of nearly twenty years, is a thoroughly unpleasant character, rather bad company; she's clearly torn between aspiring to be an arriviste and just letting loose with the most scornful and pointlessly pointed contempt for everyone around her. "I understand how people talk shop around their professions," she grouses early in the work. "but there's nobody like painters, all those people you hear arguing in the cheaper restaurants. I could understand if they talked about brushes, colors, turpentine—the things they use—but no, these people make it difficult on purpose, and sometimes no one knows what certain words mean,...

Director Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1955 feature "Le Amiche" ("The Girlfriends") has been restored by Cineteca di Bologna.

The Italian drama is currently screening in key cities across North America courtesy new distributors The Film Desk.

Lensed in black-and-white, "Le Amiche" is adapted from author Cesare Pavese's 1949 novella "Tra donne sole" focusing on Rome-based fashion courtier 'Clelia' (Eleonora Rossi Drago), who leaves the city to work at a boutique in Torino.

Antonioni wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Alba De Cespedes, shooting the film on location for the Trionfalcine production company, who distributed the film in Italy through Titanus, without securing a proper North American release at the time.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Le Amiche"...