

When your mistress's husband knows and doesn't care — who's really trapped?
The young architect Guido maintains a relationship with Carla, wife of industrialist Veraldi that despite being aware of her infidelity does nothing to prevent it.
Cinematography
Lush period interiors dripping with bourgeois tension
Acting
Machiavelli's icy, wounded wife steals every scene
Direction
Benvenuti's patient unraveling of masculine self-deception
Director
Lamberto Benvenuti
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Lamberto Benvenuti's sole directorial credit; he spent decades as an assistant director to Visconti and Zeffirelli.
Made during Italian cinema's pivot from neorealism to psychological melodrama — the bourgeoisie became the new working class to dissect.