La Califfa
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | La Califfa |
| Original title | La Califfa |
| Country of production |
Italy France |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1970 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alberto Bevilacqua |
| script | Alberto Bevilacqua based on his own novel |
| production | Mario Cecchi Gori |
| music | Ennio Morricone |
| camera | Roberto Gerardi |
| cut | Sergio Montanari |
| occupation | |
| |
La Califfa is an Italian-French feature film from 1970 with Romy Schneider and Ugo Tognazzi in the leading roles.
action
In the gray industrial location of northern Italy. All factories are on strike, workers protest in front of the largest factory and do not want to let anyone through. Only a massive police presence can keep the passage to the company open. Annibale Doberdò drives up, the factory owner and at the same time the most powerful man in town. He speaks to his workers, tries to convince them of the pointlessness of the strike, but he only earns silence. Angry at this non-response, Doberdò instructs his driver to drive off. The workers who passed the vehicle cursed wildly and glared at their boss. A worker spits on the windshield and only jumps aside at the last moment. It is the young worker Irene Corsini, who everyone just calls “La Califfa”, “the caliphate”. Her word is heard by the workers, she is influential because it is incorruptible, combative and on top of that beautiful. She would love to drive Doberdò to the devil and would like the workers who have already been laid off in the neighboring plant to be reinstated. But this is more easily demanded than implemented, because bankruptcy in this plant seems inevitable. The owner of this plant is himself desperate about these necessary measures, which threaten to destroy his life's work, and therefore asks the government and befriended employer colleagues to help him rescue it. But he encounters a lack of accommodation and disinterest everywhere. When even Doberdò refuses his call for help, the industrialist kills himself. The workers who keep the factory premises occupied lay the dead person in the factory yard as a sad warning and symbol of their hopeless situation. The culprit is soon identified: the competition, which in this case is Annibale Doberdò.
But Doberdò's presence and power silences everyone when he appears on site. Only Califfa opens her mouth and accuses him. Annibale Doberdò is impressed by this woman, who is obviously the only one who does not seem to be afraid of him and does not allow herself to be intimidated. He wants to get to know La Califfa better, visits her in her apartment and finds her there in bed with a boy. Jealousy boils in the middle-aged married man and he throws the boy out of the apartment without further ado. Califfa just laughs at Doberdò's behavior, she seems to have finally found a tried and tested means of exercising power over this apparently all-powerful man who is feared by everyone. She wants to wield this power mercilessly and destroy this man she has learned to hate. But it turns out very differently, Califfa falls in love with Doberdò. She soon begins to influence him and makes her lover want to come to terms with the workers. Doberdò makes it clear to his industrialists that they should follow his example, that this is the most sensible thing to do. But one considers him either crazy, an intriguer who wants to eliminate the unpleasant competition with the help of the trade unions or simply for a disguised revolutionary. A conspiracy is brewing against him, but Doberdò has already taken countermeasures and hired a couple of call girls to break the meeting in order not to get trapped at the next employers' meeting. This is too much for his former comrades-in-arms: while Califfa and Doberdò want to meet again in their love nest, killers have already been hired on the purified capitalists, who conscientiously do their work.
Production notes
La Califfa was created in 1970 in the central Italian cities of Parma , Spoleto and Terni and was premiered on December 31, 1970 in Turin. The German premiere took place on November 9, 1971.
Bruno Nicolai was the musical director. Romy Schneider did a few nude scenes in this film.
Awards
The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1971 and won the David di Donatello film award in the same year . Director Bevilacqua and actress Marina Berti each received the Silver Ribbon .
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Califfa | Romy Schneider | herself |
| Annibale Doberdò | Ugo Tognazzi | Martin Hirthe |
| Clementine Doberdò | Marina Berti | Anneliese Prichert |
| Fallito | Massimo Serato | Gerd Martienzen |
The dubbing was created in 1971 under the dubbing direction of Hans Joachim Szelinski for the German theatrical use by MGM distribution, but has not been used since then. A new synchro from the 1990s was shown on German TV broadcasts, in which, of course, you can no longer hear Romy Schneider's original voice.
Reviews
“A drama that degenerates into a bed story against the background of severe social unrest in northern Italy. (...) A neatly staffed colportage made with skilled craftsmanship, but lacking visual ideas. "
“Accompanied by the great film music by Ennio Morricone, Bevilacqua shows a passionate affair that is the undoing of the two lovers. Staging quite idiosyncratic and not always conclusive, the very revealing Romy Schneider and Ugo Tognazzi convince in the main roles. "
Web links
- La Califfa in the Internet Movie Database (English)