La ragazza con la valigia (Girl with a Suitcase). 1961. Italy. Directed by Valerio Zurlini. Screenplay by Zurlini, Enrico Medioli, Piero de Bernardi, Leo Benvenuti, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. With Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin. Restored by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Camelia and Titanus. In French, Italian; English subtitles. Restored by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Camelia and Titanus. 121 min.
Shortly after appearing in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Claudia Cardinale gave her international breakthrough performance in Valerio Zurlini’s unsentimental classic Girl with a Suitcase. She brings a touching vulnerability and depth to a seemingly trivial character, Aida, the slightly older love interest of a shy teenage boy (Jacques Perrin) who is too smitten and chivalrous to realize he’s too nice for her. Jonas Mekas advised in the Village Voice, “Read [Alberto] Moravia’s interview with Claudia Cardinale in Esquire, a beautiful piece of writing. She is wild and beautiful, at moments, a sort of neo-B.B. [Brigitte Bardot].”