Love Circle (1969)

Metti, una sera a cena (a.k.a. "Love Circle", literally "Let's Say, an Evening for Dinner") is a 1969 Italian drama film directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. The film was described as "a bourgeois comedy that trespassed conventional moral limits and presented a picture of—and encouraged—a new freedom of casual sexual relations."

Florinda Bolkan received a Targa d'oro and a Grolla d'oro for her performance in the film, while Ennio Morricone won the Nastro d'argento for the best original soundtrack in 1970.

Plot

Michel is a successful bourgeois playwright who fantasizes an affair between his beautiful wife, Nina, and his best friend, Max, a bisexual actor. Unbeknownst to him, the pair have in fact been lovers for years, though Max is really in love with Michel. While Nina is occupied with Max, Michel drifts into an affair with a rich, but lonely, single woman. The four meet regularly for dinner at the home of Michel and Nina where they indulge in bored, amoral conversation.

As a diversion, Max suggests to Nina that they add a third player to their bedroom games: Ric, Max's anarchist/poet boyfriend who lives in a dankly luxurious basement and sells himself to both men and women. After a while, Ric finds himself falling in love with Nina and eventually attempts suicide over her. Nina discovers Ric in time to save him and decides to leave Michel to live with Ric. But soon their relationship withers and Nina returns to her husband. It's then that Michel decides to invite Ric into the circle, as they go on meeting at dinner and playing their games of love and seduction.

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant as Michel

Lino Capolicchio as Ric

Tony Musante as Max

Florinda Bolkan as Nina

Annie Girardot as Giovanna

Silvia Monti as Actress at Press Conference

Milly as Singer

Adriana Asti as Stepdaughter

Titina Maselli as Mother

Ferdinando Scarfiotti as Son

Claudio Carrozza as Baby

Nora Ricci as 1st Actress

Mariano Rigillo as Comedian

Antonio Jaia as Young Actor

Production

The production "consolidated [Dario Argento's] relationship with two individuals who would prove crucial to The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, actor Tony Musante (who would play Argento's protagonist, Sam Dalmas) and producer Goffrey Lombardo."

Reception

Il Morandini writes about the film: "From a play [...] that somehow managed to suggest an existential desperation and the ash-flavoured erotic games. Here, in their perverse acrobatics and drawing-room suffering, the characters are the triumph of the fake. Well acted, though? Very well."

FilmTv.it stated: "Giuseppe Patroni Griffi brings one of his greatest theatrical successes to the screen, but the ambiguous family portrait of the original fades into the film's self-serving aestheticism. Beautiful, but Pirelli calendar-like, are the erotic images photographed by Tonino Delli Colli."

The film is also remembered for Ennio Morricone's original soundtrack.

Awards

1969 - Festival de Cannes

Palme d'Or nomination

1969 - David di Donatello

Targa d'oro: Florinda Bolkan- won

1969 - Grolla d'oro

Best actress: Florinda Bolkan-won

1970 - Nastro d'argento

Best soundtrack: Ennio Morricone-won

References

External links

Metti, una sera a cena at IMDb