Adua and Friends

Adua and Friends (Adua e le compagne)
Directed by	Antonio Pietrangeli
Produced by	Moris Ergas
Written by	Ruggero Maccari, Antonio Pietrangeli, Ettore Scola, Tullio Pinelli
Starring	Sandra Milo, Marcello Mastroianni, Simone Signoret
Music by	Piero Piccioni
Cinematography	Armando Nannuzzi
Edited by	Eraldo Da Roma
Distributed by	Titanus
Release dates	1960
Running time	106 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Adua and Friends (Italian: Adua e le compagnecode: it is deprecated ), also known as Hungry For Love, is a 1960 Italian film directed by Antonio Pietrangeli with a collaborative screenplay by the film's director together with Ruggero Maccari, Ettore Scola and Tullio Pinelli. The movie is about four prostitutes who start a restaurant after their brothel is shut down by the Merlin law, which made brothels illegal in Italy.

Plot

In 1958 the Merlin law made brothels illegal in Italy. Adua, Lolita, Marilina and Millie are four prostitutes whose brothel in Rome is shut down. Under Adua's leadership, they pool their savings, 500,000 lire apiece, to open a restaurant on the outskirts of Rome. They buy a run-down building, and hire workmen to fix it up, but when they apply to open the restaurant, their permit is rejected because of their history of prostitution. One of Adua's former customers, Ercoli, agrees to buy the building, use his connections, and get the permit in his name, but he expects them to run the restaurant as a front and work as a brothel on the upper floors, in return for a rent of 1 million lire a month.

The restaurant turns out to be unexpectedly successful, and the women start to lead respectable lives. But the restaurant doesn't earn as much as they could make as a brothel, and they can't pay Ercoli his 1 million lire rent. Ercoli gives them an ultimatum: start working as prostitutes again, and pay him his rent, or he will kick them out in 24 hours. When Ercoli returns, Adua refuses, humiliates him, and he leaves. In revenge, he has them all arrested for prostitution, their pictures are in the newspapers, and their respectable lives are destroyed. Adua ends up working in the streets again.

Cast

• Simone Signoret: Adua Giovannetti
• Sandra Milo: Lolita
• Emmanuelle Riva: Marilina
• Gina Rovere: Milly
• Claudio Gora: Ercoli
• Ivo Garrani: Avvocato
• Gianrico Tedeschi: Stefano
• Antonio Rais: Emilio
• Duilio D'Amore: Frate Michele
• Valeria Fabrizi: Fosca la bionda
• Gloria Gilli: Dora
• Enzo Maggio: Calypso
• Domenico Modugno: Himself
• Marcello Mastroianni: Piero Silvagni

External links

• Adua and Friends at IMDb
• Adua e le compagne in the Italian Wikipedia.