Friday | August 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Girl with a Suitcase
(La ragazza con la valigia)

Screening on Film

Directed by Valerio Zurlini.
With Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin, Luciana Angiolillo.
Italy/France, 1961, 35mm, black & white, 120 min.
Italian with English subtitles.
Print source: Cineteca di Bologna

Following the success of Violent Summer, Titanus and director Valerio Zurlini reteamed for another story of love between a teenager and a slightly older woman. Played by Claudia Cardinale in the role that made her famous, the title character is a nightclub dancer who leaves her brutish (but rich) lover to take up with his more sensitive younger brother despite his family’s furious dissent. However, the tender romance at the heart of Violent Summer is here replaced by a study of the title character, whose struggle against her poverty and whose rage against her rejection may have hardened her heart against the possibility of love.