Mauro Bolognini was a great but ridiculously under-rated director who's almost forgotten now. Peter Bondanelli, in his "History of Italian Cinema", devotes half a page to "Il Bell'Antonio" but otherwise ignores him (and never even mentions Valerio Zurlini, another great but near-forgotten director!) I read that "Senility" was one of the flops that lead to Bolognini having to spend most of the 1960s working on the episode films popular with Italians then, but while the direction was typically first-rate, I can see why this film wasn't a hit.
For me, there are problems with the casting of Emilio and his sister Amalia. The former is supposed to be nearing 40, yet to have no experience of love or sex, so to cast Anthony Franciosa seems strange: he was 34 at the time, handsome and personable, and according to Shelley Winters, the second of his four wives, would have been a shoo-in to captain the US team if there had been a Sex Olympics. As for Amalia, I can't understand why the lovely Betsy Blair was cast yet again as a lonely spinster (see "Marty". "Calle Mayor", "I Delfini" and no doubt others.) Still, both actors give excellent performances, as do Claudia Cardinale and Philippe Leroy. CC is a knockout, making Emilio's obsession very understandable.
It's also a pity that the director was still working in black and white. While this suits the bleakness of the tale, which unfolds in a generally wet, windy and wintry Trieste, colour would have enabled us to fully relish the perfect sets and costumes created by Piero Tosi, a regular collaborator of Bolognini and Visconti.
The main problem is that Emilio is such an unsympathetic "hero." A minor pen-pusher who yearns to write a novel but never seems to write a word, he wants an adventure with Angiolina, without any commitment. That's fine with her: being poor, with her family to support, she wants to nab a rich husband, and meanwhile is prostituting herself. Emilio is weak and selfish, culminating in him leaving his dying sister to chase after Angiolina yet again. When he said, in a voiceover, that he felt no remorse, I gave up on him.
For me, there are problems with the casting of Emilio and his sister Amalia. The former is supposed to be nearing 40, yet to have no experience of love or sex, so to cast Anthony Franciosa seems strange: he was 34 at the time, handsome and personable, and according to Shelley Winters, the second of his four wives, would have been a shoo-in to captain the US team if there had been a Sex Olympics. As for Amalia, I can't understand why the lovely Betsy Blair was cast yet again as a lonely spinster (see "Marty". "Calle Mayor", "I Delfini" and no doubt others.) Still, both actors give excellent performances, as do Claudia Cardinale and Philippe Leroy. CC is a knockout, making Emilio's obsession very understandable.
It's also a pity that the director was still working in black and white. While this suits the bleakness of the tale, which unfolds in a generally wet, windy and wintry Trieste, colour would have enabled us to fully relish the perfect sets and costumes created by Piero Tosi, a regular collaborator of Bolognini and Visconti.
The main problem is that Emilio is such an unsympathetic "hero." A minor pen-pusher who yearns to write a novel but never seems to write a word, he wants an adventure with Angiolina, without any commitment. That's fine with her: being poor, with her family to support, she wants to nab a rich husband, and meanwhile is prostituting herself. Emilio is weak and selfish, culminating in him leaving his dying sister to chase after Angiolina yet again. When he said, in a voiceover, that he felt no remorse, I gave up on him.