Claudia Cardinale is at her most beautiful as Aida, an ordinary, low-class girl with little education. In the Italian society of the time, her only choice to survive his marrying well, but she's already missed her chance, having believed the talks about "free love" of her first boyfriend who got her pregnant and disappeared from the scene.
An unmarried young mother was not considered respectable in 1961, therefore Aida is an easy prey, first of Piero, her married band leader who mistreats her, then of Marcello a rich latin lover, who seduces her and then dumps her in a garage. So far, all the male characters are despicable.
Enters Lorenzo, Marcello's younger brother who is confronted by Aida and tells her lots of lies because he wants to keep her around. Lorenzo develops a major crush for Aida, but he's only 16 and has no chance of a real romance.
Aida turns a bit despicable herself when Lorenzo pays for her lodging in a luxury hotel and even buys her clothes. Her "thank you" is flirting with an older, sleazy hotel guest.
Having realised Lorenzo is a dead end, Aida tries to patch up things with Piero, who wants nothing of it, but his friend Romolo expresses an interest in paying Aida for sex. Sliding down the slippery slope, Aida is momentarily stopped by Lorenzo who tries a grand gesture, only to dump Aida like everybody else, leaving her a nice wad of cash.
The story moves at snail pace and all characters are unpleasant to various degrees. Cardinale was a luminous beauty and talented and Perrin as Lorenzo also did a good job. Still, a forgettable downer of a movie.
An unmarried young mother was not considered respectable in 1961, therefore Aida is an easy prey, first of Piero, her married band leader who mistreats her, then of Marcello a rich latin lover, who seduces her and then dumps her in a garage. So far, all the male characters are despicable.
Enters Lorenzo, Marcello's younger brother who is confronted by Aida and tells her lots of lies because he wants to keep her around. Lorenzo develops a major crush for Aida, but he's only 16 and has no chance of a real romance.
Aida turns a bit despicable herself when Lorenzo pays for her lodging in a luxury hotel and even buys her clothes. Her "thank you" is flirting with an older, sleazy hotel guest.
Having realised Lorenzo is a dead end, Aida tries to patch up things with Piero, who wants nothing of it, but his friend Romolo expresses an interest in paying Aida for sex. Sliding down the slippery slope, Aida is momentarily stopped by Lorenzo who tries a grand gesture, only to dump Aida like everybody else, leaving her a nice wad of cash.
The story moves at snail pace and all characters are unpleasant to various degrees. Cardinale was a luminous beauty and talented and Perrin as Lorenzo also did a good job. Still, a forgettable downer of a movie.