Woman of Rome *** (1954, Gina Lollobrigida, Daniel Gélin, Franco Fabrizi) – Classic Movie Review 11,077

‘Love was her profession… men were her career! ‘

Director Luigi Zampa’s classy 1954 black and white Italian romantic drama film Woman of Rome [La romana] stars Gina Lollobrigida in her glorious prime as the beautiful but poor Adriana Silenzi, who works as a model for a painter [Il pittore] (Giovanni Di Benedetto) in Italy during the Fascist era, in a tale of a woman’s misadventures in search of love.

She becomes the lover of a penniless chauffeur who promises to marry her, but he is already married with a family. Then she works as a prostitute but falls in love with the kindly partisan Mino (Daniel Gélin), who falls in love with her too but ends up in jail for anti-Fascist activities.

It is based on the novel by Alberto Moravia, with the screenplay by him, Luigi Zampa, Giorgio Bassani and Ennio Flaiano.

The cast are Gina Lollobrigida as Adriana, Daniel Gélin as Mino, Franco Fabrizi as Gino, Raymond Pellegrin as Astarita, Pina Piovani as Adriana’s mother [Madre di Adriana], Xenia Valderi as Gisella, Renato Tontini as Carlo Sonzogno, Gino Buzzanca as Riccardo, Mariano Bottino as Tommaso, Giuseppe Addobbati as Tullio, Giovanni Di Benedetto as the painter [Il pittore] and Riccardo Garrone as Giancarlo.

Woman of Rome was released in the UK by Exclusive Films, who submitted it to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) who passed it with an X certificate on 5 March 1957. It was first shown for press and trade only in London at the Hammer preview theatre in Wardour Street, London, on 21 March 1957 and went on general release on 20 May 1957 in a surprise double bill with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). As the Hammer horror was a huge hit, many more people saw Woman of Rome than expected.

It is produced by Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis, and shot at Ponti-De Laurentiis Studios, Rome.

Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,077

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