In a disguise, the painter Vaser lands a job restoring frescoes at the Santa Ingenua boarding school. A schoolgirl there, Liliana, invites her friend Gigetta and her aunt to meet her brother, Lieutenant Giorgio. Gigetta and Giorgio fall in love, but an unexpected episode gets in the way of their marriage. During a picnic organized by the nuns and schoolgirls, Gigetta climbs a tree, and Vaser takes a risqué picture of her. A series of misadventures unfolds as the whole boarding school, a unit of soldiers and even the police commissioner hunt down the compromising picture and plate. The ending is happy: the plate is destroyed, and Gigetta cheekily tears up the picture without showing it to the audience. This comedy of rip-roaring mischief and infectious joy also contains a veiled reference to the war underway in scenes where men previously rejected for military service are reexamined. The costumes are remarkable, especially the charming mises – from bourgeois lady to Amazon – for Morano, who here performs as a mature actress and is flanked by the fresh face of newcomer Tonini, as radiant as she was unknown.

Claudia Gianetto