The Lady Without Camelias

An early Antonioni. I was glad to see his work is a bit different from the typical neo-realist films that were all the rage in Italy at the time, on the other hand I'm not really a big fan of films about the film business either, as they tend to get a little too self-indulgent (and whiny). For the most part, Antonioni seems to avoid that pitfall.

The cinematography is stark and clean, but a little uneventful. The same can be said about the soundtrack. For someone who's described by many as a "mood director", I'm not quite convinced of Antonioni's skills yet and The Lady Without Camelias didn't do much to change that feeling.

Performances are decent (and surprisingly subdued) though and the plot was interesting enough to keep my attention. I can't say I was completely intrigued, but it never started to drag and it even managed to get a little better near the end. It makes for a solid, though rather basic drama. If I'm honest though, I expected worse.