Paris, My Love

Paris, My Love

106 mins | Comedy | Dec. 5, 1962

Parigi O Cara is probably the most camp in the history of Italian cinema, certainly a favourite with the GLBT community who quote its lines by heart. Unique as it's the only film where Franca Valeri (now 90) is the unquestioned star, in the role of Delia, a snobbish, stingy prostitute who is moving to Paris looking for greener and more lucrative pastures. An anti-neorealist, amoral, almost abstract comedy, which anticipates Almodóvar, a ferocious, though gentle, non-moralistic portrayal of the 60's boom and its broken dreams. The dialogue between Delia and her brother (played by Fiorenzo Fiorentini), when he does (or does not) tell her he is a homosexual, is memorable, a primordial coming-out, a masterpiece of allusions. But what makes it one of the first examples of a film with a "gay point of view" is the approach: perceptive, non-conformist, caustically witty. A film ahead of its times, still unbeaten.

Paris, My Love

106 mins | Comedy | Dec. 5, 1962

Paris, My Love
Parigi O Cara is probably the most camp in the history of Italian cinema, certainly a favourite with the GLBT community who quote its lines by heart. Unique as it's the only film where Franca Valeri (now 90) is the unquestioned star, in the role of Delia, a snobbish, stingy prostitute who is moving to Paris looking for greener and more lucrative pastures. An anti-neorealist, amoral, almost abstract comedy, which anticipates Almodóvar, a ferocious, though gentle, non-moralistic portrayal of the 60's boom and its broken dreams. The dialogue between Delia and her brother (played by Fiorenzo Fiorentini), when he does (or does not) tell her he is a homosexual, is memorable, a primordial coming-out, a masterpiece of allusions. But what makes it one of the first examples of a film with a "gay point of view" is the approach: perceptive, non-conformist, caustically witty. A film ahead of its times, still unbeaten.
Producers Ajace Produzioni Cinematografiche
Original title Parigi o cara
Directors Vanda Tuzzi, Nando Cicero, Philippe Collin, Vittorio Caprioli
Writers Silvana Ottieri, Renato Mainardi, Franca Valeri, Vittorio Caprioli

Cast

Franca Valeri

as Delia Nesti

Vittorio Caprioli

as Avallone

Fiorenzo Fiorentini

as Claudio Nesti

Margherita Girelli

as Grazia

Antonio Battistella

as Antonio

Michèle Bardollet

as La Française

Nunzia Fumo

as Elvira

Gigi Reder

as Il Portinaio