Critical review of the reception of Pavese’s Tra donne sole and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le amiche. A new proposal for analysis

Abstract

This paper intends to be a critical review of the studies on the reception of Cesare Pavese’s short novel Tra donne sole (1949) through its re-reading and adaptation carried out by Michelangelo Antonioni in his film Le amiche (1955). I start with Pavese’s impressions at the end of his work, compare the opinions of some contemporary readers with those expressed by Calvino some years later, also when Antonioni’s film was launched, as well as the director’s answer. Finally, I suggest my own analysis of the re-reading of the text made by Antonioni by using the changes made in the filmic adaptation as an underlying theme, with the aim to clarify some meanings of the starting text and to give account of the mentioned interpretations.