Girl with a Suitcase (1961)

Simply Perfect

Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The subtle, probing camera of director Zurlini (with its admirable choice of camera angles and remarkably fluid camera movement), allied with the evocative, deceptively simple yet superbly skilled photography of Santoni, clothe this wistful and heart-tuggingly scored romantic drama with an appeal that is as immediate as the pretty pout of Claudia Cardinale's lips, and as attractive as the sun-shrouded locations of Parma and Riccione. Acting is fine throughout, and Claudia Cardinale's admirers need not be too upset by the English-dubbed version, as she doesn't speak her own lines in the Italian version either. The original running time is listed as 135 minutes, but I've never met anyone who has actually seen this version. IMDb lists 121 minutes, but the dubbed version I saw at a studio preview ran 115 minutes (which is still longer than the U.S. sub-titled version of around 110 minutes or the U.K. dubbed version of 96 minutes).

"Girl With a Suitcase" begins with a young lady (Claudia Cardinale) being abandoned by a man. He claims he has an appointment and will return but doesn't. The lady is stranded and calls the man's home. They have no idea who she's calling for, as he'd given her a false name--but the phone number and address were correct. Apparently this bum had used the woman and when he finds out about this, he convinces his 16 year-old brother to tell her that they have no idea who this man is who abandoned her and that she should leave. However, something strange happens--the young man becomes infatuated with her. While he doesn't tell her the truth, he does agree to help her and they form a friendship. If I were 16 and such a woman came into my life, I could certainly understand the guy--Ms. Cardinale was radiant in the film and I am pretty sure almost all the men in the theater seeing this were also infatuated with her! Much of the film is very, very slow--and this is NOT meant as a criticism. It's just leisurely paced and lovely to watch--thanks to excellent acting and especially to the director's touch. This could have all seemed rather silly or salacious, but thanks to deft handling it's rather endearing and sweet to watch as it unfolds. Unfortunately, however, I would say that the last quarter of the film is quite different--and not quite as good. Still, overall, it's a very nice film and I can honestly say I can't think of another film like it! Some might be a bit put off by the age difference between the characters, but fortunately it did avoid being too creepy (see the film and you'll probably know what I mean).

Zurlini introduces a familiar theme, a futile relationship with an older woman and a younger man, perfected in his later film `Violent Summer,' but here Aida, Claudia Cardinale, plays a nighclub singer who is jilted in the opening moments of the film and spends the rest of the film searching for a way out of the stereotypical relationship of a beautiful woman using, and being used by men, a dependent and unhealthy relationship. When Marcello, a cad who lives in a lavish estate, tells his 16 year old younger Lorenzo, Jacques Perrin, to get rid of the girl, the younger brother's interest turns from bewilderment to unbridled obsession, as the high-strung, free-spirited girl surprisingly is flattered by his attention and by her belief that he has money, contrasting the obvious class distinction between the two, he lives in a statue-filled estate with his family, she lives alone out of a suitcase in a hotel room. The adults in the film are overly stern and heartless, represented by the familiar Zurlini statues which can be seen throughout his entire body of work; this lifelessness is contrasted against the passion of youth. The relationship comes to a screeching halt with the intervention of the family priest who questions Aida's motives with such a young and impressionable boy, urging her to move on. This is a brilliant scene where they speak in what appears to be a museum construction area, broken statues lie about with other scattered debris as the priest tries to reconstruct the spiritual direction of the young lovers, urging them to go their separate ways. This leads Aida into the arms of another conniving man who attempts to seduce her with plenty of money and alcohol, but Lorenzo arrives, refuses to butt out, gets his butt kicked by the older man, which leads to this extraordinarily long, beautifully evolving scene on the beach where the two lovers are caught up in the mysteries of their own futility, a kind of existential despair, surrounded by the wonderment of nature. This film constantly shifts the focus on who is the victim and who is to blame, in the end there are no answers, just a continuous search.

This somewhat mediocre and meandering melodramatic film by Zurlini features Claudia Cardinale at her most exquisitely beautiful in every shot and what shots! Beautiful long takes that allow you to concentrate on whatever you want. Tino Santoni is a hell of cinematographer, whoever he was, a total master. If the script had been a little bit better the film might've ended up transcending into a superpoetic realm like Zurlini's awesome technicolor 1962 film "Family Diary"; as it is, it's very much a failure in an overall sense but still pretty good as probably the ultimate ode to one of the most beautiful actresses in cinematic history.