Atto di Dolore. 1990. Italy. Directed by Pasquale Squitieri. Screenplay by Squitieri, Nanni Balestrini, Sergio Bianchi. With Claudia Cardinale, Bruno Cremer. Restored by Cinecittà in collaboration with Rai Cinema. In Italian; English subtitles. Restored by Cinecittà in collaboration with Rai Cinema. 108 min.
In her most poignant collaboration with her longtime partner Pasquale Squitieri, Claudia Cardinale plays a widowed mother of two who must make a catastrophic choice when her teenage son becomes violently addicted to heroin. Contributing to the film’s uncompromising script—said to have been based on a celebrated court case in Milan—was the noted experimental poet Nanni Balestrini, a founding member with Umberto Eco of the 1960s avant-garde literary movement Gruppo 63.