Teresa the thief
by
MOVIE CATEGORY
Teresa Numa, born in Anzio into a large family, finds herself forced to leave her father’s house and look for work. After changing ten jobs in seven years, she ends up as a scullery maid at the home of the stationmaster, Cavalier Nardecchia, in Campo di Carne. There she gives birth to a son, but will marry Sisto, the child’s father, only several years later. Since her husband, a convinced Fascist, died during the Allied landing in Sicily, Teresa moves temporarily to Rome, where she begins to live by her wits and joins a ring of petty thieves. She ends up in prison on the eve of the Liberation, and when she gets out she tries her luck in Livorno, Genoa and Milan to no avail. Returning once more to Rome, she ends up first in prison and then even in an asylum, and becomes involved first to Tonino Santità, a minister’s driver, and then to the petty thief Ercoletto. Released from the criminal asylum, she returns to Anzio to savor again some illusory happiness in the flowery fields where she spent her childhood.
DIRECTORY
Cinematographer and director. He made his debut when he was 17 as camera assistant of Luchino Visconti’s Obsession (1943). At the age of 20 he covered the same role for Rossellini’s Rome, Open City. In the 1960s he became director of photography and worked on numerous successful films, such as Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style (1962), Monicelli’s Brancaleone’s Army (1966). He is well-known for his collaborations with directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni – with whom he worked on his first color film Red Desert (1964), and then for Blow-Up (1966) and Identification of a Woman (1982) – Bernardo Bertolucci (Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, 1981) and Roberto Benigni (The Monster, 1999). In 1986 with Hannah and Her Sisters he began a collaboration with Woody Allen, leading to an artistic partnership that would last for ten films shot in eleven years, including Radio Days the following year, and culminating with Deconstructing Harry (1997). In addition to his work as a cinematographer, between 1972 and 1984 Di Palma also ventured into directing, making four films, three of which starred Monica Vitti, who was his longtime partner. Starting in 2002, he dedicated himself to lighting symphony concerts. He passed away at the age of 79 in his home in Rome after a long illness.
