Carlo Lizzani, Giorgio Arlorio and Ennio De Concini (respectively director, author of the story, and screenwriter) conceived Esterina as a slice-of-life glimpse of a changing Italy. To do so, they resorted to the format of the road movie, which was unusual in Italian cinema at the time and functioned as a narrative break. In the film, you can see cities under construction (the Falchera district of Turin), streets becoming crowded with vehicles, young girls who want to flee the family nest, doorways revealing a thousand different activities, and workshops servicing motor-driven vehicles. While starring in the film, Domenico Modugno was also preparing a sci-fi story with Arlorio for a film that was ultimately never made. At the Venice Film Festival, Rene Clair greatly admired the film and offered his personal congratulations to Lizzani, but it did not win anything because it was overshadowed by two important Italian films: General Della Rovere and The Great War. It was Carla Gravina’s first role as protagonist and Lizzani chose her because she “seemed French”. Modugno, who was already famous for the song Nel blu dipinto di blu [Volare], agreed to appear because “he liked the people who had come together to make it” and he composed Una testa piena di sogni [A Head Full of Dreams] specifically for the film. De Concini suggested staging the protagonist’s second suicide attempt at the Monte Gelato Falls in the town of Mazzano Romano; he knew the location very well because scenes from all the mythological films – a genre he himself initiated with Hercules – were shot there. The film’s assistant director, Giuliano Montaldo, recalls that four of them went location-scouting in a Fiat 600 and the production manager begged them not to dig their knees into the seats as it could damage them.

Steve Della Casa