La voglia matta

One weekend Antonio Berlinghieri, a forty-year-old industrialist from Milan, is driving his Alfa Romeo Spider to Pisa to see his son. On the way Antonio encounters a (saucy) sixteen-year-old, Francesca, who asks him for some gas for her friends’ car, which has broken down. Partly for fun and partly because he is attracted to Francesca, Antonio joins up with the group of teenagers, who invite him to spend Sunday with them in a chalet by the sea. Here Antonio tries to bridge somehow the differences in mentality and tastes due to age, but finds himself always on the brink of ridicule. Deep down the businessman is prey to bourgeois hypocrisy and struggles to understand the uninhibited behavior of these youngsters, although at the same time he is fascinated by it. On the other hand, Francesca too finds it hard to take him seriously, wavering between compassion and mockery: she is flattered by the agitation she stirs in Antonio, but prefers her fellow teenagers. She allows the man a moment of intimacy, at night, on the beach. Then, at dawn, she sets off with her friends. Left alone, befuddled and with his heart full of bitterness, Antonio resumes his journey to Pisa. (Venice International Film Festival)