Hungry for Love (1960) User Reviews (11)

Trying To Start Over

[boblipton · 9/10 · 23 May 2019]

The city is closing down the disorderly houses, but Simone Signoret and her fellow working girls have a plan. They'll open a restaurant in the suburbs and and take men upstairs. Yet, as they work hard to get the restaurant up and working, they find themselves changing.

The 1960s saw the Italians produce some serious movies about working girls, but director Antonio Pietrangeli has directed a fine one here, one that shows the women as individuals, and gotten some fine actresses in the roles; not only Signoret, but Sandra Milo, Emanuelle Riva, and Gina Rovere. They do a fine job, and the script but Pietrangelo with Ettore Scola and Ruggero Maccari makes it clear that the problem is not just with the women, but with the corrupt and venal attitudes of the men around them.

At first I thought this was too long a movie -- it's more than two hours from start to finish -- but there's not a wasted moment.

A film featuring strong female characters

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 7/10 · 30 June 2013]

Antonio Pietrangelli's ADUA E LE COMPAGNE (ADUA AND HER FRIENDS) is a slice of Italian neo-realist film-making.

Legal brothels have just been banned, and now four professional girls must find a new occupation. Adua (Simone Signoret, Room at the Top, Ship of Fools), Milly (Gina Rovere, Life is Beautiful, and Best Actress winner for this film at the Avellino Neorealism Film Festival), Lolita (Sandra Milo, Juliet of the Spirits, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this film by Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists), and Marilina (Emmanuelle Riva, Hiroshima Mon Amour) create a restaurant with the plan to make an illicit brothel of the upstairs rooms.

When obstacles prevent opening their restaurant, they turn to Dr. Ercoli (Claudio Gora), a local "fixer" who'll make the license happen, but only for a price. They carry on, but know the past will eventually come knocking. With a restaurant that's slowly becoming successful, and the attentions of car salesman Piero (Marcello Mastroianni), Adua and the girls adjust to their new lives. One starts a new romance; another reconnects with her young son.

If you are looking for titillation in a story about four prostitutes, you need to look elsewhere, as this film, with some stirring jazz, focuses on the characters in transition.

There are so many moments where this could easily have become sentimental and doesn't

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 20 January 2007]

Very fine, gloriously black and white, very well acted drama involving four girls who decide to pool their resources and run a restaurant together when their brothel is closed down. There are so many moments where this could easily have become sentimental and doesn't and is much to the director's credit that this looks so good throughout. The jazz soundtrack is a great help as are the snatches or 'real life' - the steam trains rushing below car dealer Mastroianni's window, the fine moment in the main street when he passes off Signoret's failing car to another whilst slipping her into one more. But the best of all such sequences is the final shot upon the cobblestoned street in the pouring rain and without a cloying close-up, we all know exactly what the facial expression is. As I say all the acting is good but Signoret particularly puts in another excellent performance where she ranges from sexy to sad and energetic to dejected, but perhaps best of all her verbal onslaught upon 'the landlord'.

An "unknown" film that deserves a wider audience.

[joehardy-2 · 14 November 2000]

Here is a wonderful example of Italian realism from 1960 that I'd never heard of until this week--and I'm 65 years old and a big fan of this genre. It was shown in San Francisco as the only "classic" film in a festival of recent Italian cinema. It deserves a wider audience. How can a film that stars Simone Signoret and Marcello Mastroianni remain so obscure? This story of four prostitutes forced to fend for themselves when a new law closes the bordellos of Rome reminds one of "Bicycle Thief" or "The Organizer," in its gritty social realism, but there are scenes of happiness and humor too. They pool their savings to open a trattoria, but find they cannot get a license. A prominent fixer with connections obtains the license for them, on condition that they conduct their old business upstairs and pay him an exorbitant monthly fee. The women are not anxious to turn tricks for a living any longer and find joy in running the restaurant. The women long to settle down--one has a child, another meets a man who loves her. Only one is tempted to return to her old life. Signoret, the major character here and as wonderful as ever, falls for Mastroianni, a glib car salesman, hustler and womanizer. While the trattoria is a success, it does not bring in the kind of money demanded by their "patron," which leads to conflict. The resolutions of their individual stories develop alongside that of their collective story. In this genre, happy endings are not a staple. Grim reality is, however. We can feel great sympathy for these women, but we know that such people are too often bound by destiny, given the realities of power--who has it and who hasn't--and the attitudes of society. All this drama is accompanied by a terrific jazz soundtrack, which is unfortunately not credited. The black-and-white cinematography is first rate. The closing scene in the rain ranks among the all-time unforgettable film endings.

Excellent...

[RosanaBotafogo · 9/10 · 13 June 2020]

Out of laziness and lack of time, I only watch dubbed, and in this quarantine I have the luxury of watching subtitles, what a delight this Italian work, starting with the language, which portrays the difficult empowerment and liberation of women in the 60s, a beautiful and unfortunately contemporary portrait ... Such a tragic ending... Excellent...

About those promoting prostitution

[esteban1747 · 8/10 · 11 May 2005]

I will never be tired of seeing "Adua e le compagne", this black and white film is a jewel of Italian cinematography with a plot easy to understand, and excellent acting of four women, French star Simone Signoret, then-young Sandra Milo, Gina Rovere and Emmanuelle Riva, all playing the role of prostitutes who wanted to incorporate themselves honestly to the society. Their acting was seconded by the experienced and charismatic Marcello Mastroianni in the role of a typical Italian tricky pigeon and lover. Italy of the 50s had the problem of prostitution, and mafia was around it together with some "gentlemen" of the corrupted local administration always looking for licenses, permits and other documents in a tricky way to facilitate the work of the prostitutes who at the same time had to pay heavy sum of money to the above-mentioned gentlemen. The director Antonio Pietrangeli was able to show clearly where the problem was and who were promoting the dirty business of prostitution. In addition, youth does not last forever and the same happened with the beauty of the prostitutes. The film also shows this fact convincingly. The DVD of this film exists but only in Italian, and it would be good to have it in other languages (English, Spanish and French at least).

a diverting Italian romp carrying a scorching message

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 23 February 2016]

Italian screenwriter-director Antonio Pietrangeli died young at the age of 49, during a drowning accident while shooting COME, QUANDO, PERCHÉ (1969), and ADUA AND HER FRIENDS, perhaps is his most distinguished work treads the post-Neorealism soil with a broad comic vibe.

Adua (Signoret) and her three friends, more specifically, her workmates, Lolita (Milo), Marilina (Riva) and Milly (Rovere) are prostitutes, who are out of work due to the Merlin law, which made brothels illegal in Italy in 1958, together, they invest all their savings to open a trattoria in the suburbs of Rome, hope to start a new business and leave their dishonourable past behind, but a second chance seems to be a dashed dream for people like them. The restaurant business is thriving, at one time, their customer even includes the famed cantautore Domencico Modugno, but soon the reality check will catch up with these girls, a bleak coda shows that the society is not ready to welcome them back with warm arms.

The synopsis sounds rather despondent, but the movie is beguilingly infused with a boisterous commedia dell'arte sheen. The quartet itself doesn't hold together in the first place, Lolita is a hackneyed bimbo, gullible and care-free , who foolhardily believes in her swindling beau Stefano (Tedeschi); Marilina is the cynical one made up with plenty of bile and has an unbaptised son to care about; Milly, is an unassuming hard-worker, who is really close to a happy marriage with their one of their frequenters Emilio (Rais); finally Adua, the oldest and wisest among them, has a worldly perception but her ill-fated romance with a smooth-talking Italian Romeo Piero (Mastroianni, in his usual dashing and flirtatious flair) can only spell happiness is nothing but a dashed dream for her, Signoret again cement the scenes where superficial comedy head-butts with harsh realism.

Pietrangeli never shifts his sympathy towards these women of ill repute in his vigorous portrayal, even for Marilina (Riva is equipped with searing fierceness here), whose wanton behaviour initially occasions a fervent sense of objectionableness, but her hard edge begins to mellow once her son is back in her life. They are far from perfect, but at least, they try very hard to be self-sufficient, which is in sheer comparison with all the men in their lives, are either ignoble self-seekers, callous brutes or dreadful cowards, save for the layman priest (D'Amore). The condemnation is sublimated in the ending, where although only Adua is present, but if she is at her wits' end, it is not difficult to imagine what happens to the other three. On balance, the film is a diverting romp carrying a scorching message, deserves the attention of hardcore cinephiles.

Hungry For Self Determination

[vwild · 10/10 · 18 April 2015]

Adua e le Compagne has a simple story. It's Rome 1958 and brothels have just been outlawed. Four prostitutes take their savings and invest in a country restaurant to use as a front to cover their usual trade. In time they discover they like the restaurant business and - what do you know - they are good at it. It's not easy for these women with shady pasts and shady connections to reform themselves. Can they make it?

Pietrangeli somehow takes this story and, avoiding the many pitfalls of cliché and stereotype, makes an engrossing and moving masterpiece. This is no story of "good hearted hookers", nor a bland feel-good movie, nor a neo-realist lecture, nor a trite girl flick. The story is sympathetically handled by Pietrangeli, the screenplay is subtle and sophisticated, the cinematography is beautiful, the supporting cast are excellent, but it is the wonderful performances of the four leads, Simone Signoret, Sandra Milo, Emmanuelle Riva and Gina Rovere, that make this film soar. Emmanuelle Riva's performance is a detailed account of brittle self-loathing and as good as pretty much any performance you will see, except that in Adua e le Compagne we have a simply peerless star at the height of her powers in Simone Signoret.

Simone Signoret seems to be living the part - the awkward walk, the toughness and occasional viciousness, the knowing self delusion in her romance with a no-good car salesman, the capable and determined leader who forgets to get the gas connected, the fears for the future, the optimism and self-destruction, the strength and lack of sentimentality. Signoret is subtle and real with unequalled empathy with this character. It feels telepathic at times as if Adua's thoughts are being transmitted to you.

Adua e le Compagne is a profoundly humane and compassionate film about women that is neither sentimental nor condescending. A must see.

Prostitution and the Law!

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 17 August 2015]

When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.

European films (particularly French and Italian) seem to have some strange preoccupation with brothels and prostitution, often glamorizing it. Here is more of that, with these four ladies coming across as fiercely independent. Not impossible, but probably not the most common sort of folks who worked the trade.

What makes this film interesting, at least historically, is that it was made in response to an actual law that shut down brothels. And, indeed, it does raise that question: where are prostitutes to go? They have an unusual skill set, odd references... and respectability is limited.

Why isn't this famous?

[skepticskeptical · 9/10 · 2 October 2020]

What a perfect piece of Italian neorealism this is. I am seriously wondering why it is not included in all of the usual lists with I ladri di biciclette, Umberto D, Roma Citta Aperta, etc. A gripping story about the life of prostitutes and how they struggle to survive against all the odds. Also a story about classism and hypocrisy, more generally. Simone Signoret is excellent as always, but so is Emanuelle Riva. Plus Marcello Mastroianni plays the consummate cad. All in all, extremely well done with a gripping story and a searing look at politics and classism in Italy.

Highly recommended.

Four For Taxes

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 4 December 2005]

This has to be something of an oddity - a 'Continetal' film about four hookers with NO nudity and No sex. Quite a trick but Pietrangeli pulls it off with the help of a fine cast led by Simone Signoret - by now no stranger to the oldest profession having played hookers in Dedee Of Anvers and La Ronde - as the eponymous Adua and Marcello Mastroianni as the waste-of-space she falls for. All four of the hookers - Caterina (Gina Rovere), Lolita (Sandra Milo) and Marilena (Emmannuelle Riva) are the other three - are excellent and contrive not to LOOK like what they are or rather were for the story begins when the Italian government closed the legal brothels effectively putting them out of work. They pool their money and open a restaurant and make a decent stab at leaving their old lives behind them but problems mount up in the form of red tape requiring a 'patron' to unravel. Such a patron is found and he's more than happy to do the necessary with the proviso that in the fullness of time, say two months, the girls revert to their old trade via turning tricks in the upstairs bedrooms of the restaurant. For various reasons only one of the four is happy with and prepared to do this and so the film has a realistic rather than a conventional happy ending. Signoret towers above the others and even Mastroianni seems lacklustre in comparison but it remains an engrossing film and well worth seeing.