''The Story of Piera'' ( it, Storia di Piera) is a 1983 Italian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Marco Ferreri Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of ...

Hanna Schygulla Hanna Schygulla (; born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German ...

won the award for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

at the

1983 Cannes Film Festival The 36th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 19 May 1983. The Palme d'Or went to the '' Narayama Bushiko'' by Shōhei Imamura. In 1983, the new building for the main events of the festival, the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, was inaug ...

Plot

The film starts in one of the new towns of

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

with the birth of Piera, daughter of the somewhat unbalanced Eugenia and her apparently sane husband Lorenzo, who has a job with the PCI. Eugenia's behaviour at home and in public becomes increasingly erratic and when on top of this Lorenzo loses his post, the strain puts him into a mental hospital. Piera leaves school to work for a dressmaker and pursues her dream of acting, eventually breaking into television and theatre. Interleaved with her outside life we see her sexual development, from kissing neighbourhood boys to a lesbian relationship while she is in hospital with breathing problems and finally to adult men. While Piera is maturing as a woman and as an actress, Eugenia is deteriorating and has to be locked away. The film ends with Piera taking her mother out for the day to a deserted beach, where the two women undress and hug each other tightly in a moment of natural tenderness.

Cast

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She is the recipient of sev ...

as Piera *

as Eugenia * Marcello Mastroianni as Lorenzo *

Angelo Infanti Angelo Infanti (; 16 February 1939 – 12 October 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1961 and 2010. He was born on 16 February 1939 in Zagarolo, Italy. He died on 12 October 2010 in Tivoli, Italy due ...

as Tito and as actor playing Jason *

Tanya Lopert Tanya Lopert (born 19 June 1942 in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,8 ...

as Elide * Bettina Grühn as the young Piera * Renato Cecchetto *

Maurizio Donadoni Maurizio Donadoni (born 7 January 1958) is an Italian film, stage and television actor. Born in Bergamo, Donadoni started his career on stage in the late 1970s, working among others with Luca Ronconi and Gabriele Lavia. He made his film debut i ...

as Massimo * Aiché Nanà as the midwife * Girolamo Marzano * Lidia Montanari as "Cento mille lires" * Laura Trotter as young midwife * Marina Zanchi *

Lina Bernardi Lina (pronounced "Leena") is a feminine given name. Languages of origin include: English, Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Persian, Kurdish, Arabic. It is also the short form of a variety of names ending in -lina including Catalin ...

* Elisabetta Ambrosini * Fiametta Baraila * Serana Bennato * Rita Caldana * Cristina Forti *

Loredana Bertè Loredana Bertè (; born 20 September 1950) is an Italian singer and actress. In her long career she has worked with prominent Italian songwriters such as Pino Daniele, Ivano Fossati, Mario Lavezzi, Mango and Enrico Ruggeri, among others; her si ...

(herself, singer "

Sei bellissima "Sei bellissima" is an Italian song written by Claudio Daiano and Gian Pietro Felisatti and performed by Loredana Bertè. During the years Bertè claimed to be the actual composer of the song, but that at the time she was unable to sign it as she ...

References

External links

* 1983 films 1983 drama films Films directed by Marco Ferreri 1980s Italian-language films Italian LGBT-related films Lesbian-related films Films about sexuality Films scored by Philippe Sarde Films based on biographies 1983 LGBT-related films 1980s Italian films {{1980s-Italy-film-stub