Jump to content

A Wrong Way to Love

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Wrong Way to Love
Directed byFernando Di Leo
StarringNieves Navarro
Gianni Macchia
Micaela Pignatelli
Release date
  • 1969 (1969)
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

A Wrong Way to Love (Italian: Amarsi male) is a 1969 Italian drama film. It was directed by Fernando Di Leo. It stars Nieves Navarro, Gianni Macchia, Micaela Pignatelli, Lucio Dalla, and Lea Lander.[1]

Production

[edit]

The female lead actress initially chosen was Lucia Bosè, later replaced by Pier Angeli and ultimately by Nieves Navarro.[2] The singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla was given a comical sidekick role.[2][3] The male protagonist's surname, Tessari, is a Di Leo's homage to his real life friend Duccio Tessari.[2] The best known actor in the cast, Gary Merrill, has only a supporting role.[2] The film has cameos of Giancarlo Cobelli and Maria Monti, as two small-theater performers.[3] The director Di Leo appears uncredited as a client in a brothel.[2]

Reception

[edit]

The film was a box office failure; in 1972 it was re-released under the title Brucia amore brucia, a reference to Di Leo's prior hit, Brucia, ragazzo, brucia, but still failed to be profitable.[2][3]

The film has been generally badly received by critics. Paolo Mereghetti describes it as an attempt to describe the social turmoil of the late 1960s, which falls into "the clichés of melodrama".[3] According to Manlio Gomarasca, the film is a "soulless shell", formally very good, even exceeding Di Leo's previous films, but empty of substance.[2] Gomarasca attributes the failure of the film principally to a lack of courage in its erotic and social aspects, probably a result of the censorship issues Di Leo had suffered with Brucia, ragazzo, brucia.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Amarsi male in Cinema.theiapolis.com
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Manlio Gomarasca, Amarsi male, in Calibro 9: Il cinema di Ferdinando Di Leo, Nocturno Dossier, Cinemabis Communication, page 52.
  3. ^ a b c d Paolo Mereghetti, Amarsi male, in Il Mereghetti - Dizionario dei film 2006, Baldini & Castoldi, page 112.
[edit]