Lady Caliph (Italian: La califfa) is a 1970 Italian-French drama film written and directed by Alberto Bevilacqua. It was entered into the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
Contents
Plot
In the Emilia province of Italy, out of solidarity with the workers fired from another failed company, the workers occupy the factory of self-made industrialist Annibale Doberdò (played by Ugo Tognazzi). In dealing with the situation, he starts negotiations. An employee, the beautiful and fiery Irene, nicknamed Califfa (Romy Schneider), whose worker-husband was killed during a demonstration, meets with Doberdò. He wants to induce the strikers back to work and they show uncertainty between the directives of their union and the incitements to violence by extremists. Irene becomes Doberdò's lover and asks the workers to listen to the industrialist's proposals for renewal of working terms and worker participation in the factory management. The riots, however, continue. The industrialist's stance is badly received by other employers. While he returns from yet another meeting with his lover, Doberdò is killed by assassins.
Cast
Ugo Tognazzi - Annibale Doberdò, industrialist
Romy Schneider - Irene "La Califfa" Corsini, worker
Massimo Farinelli - Giampiero Doberdò, son of Annibale
Marina Berti - Clementine Doberdò, wife of Annibale
Guido Alberti - Catholic priest
Roberto Bisacco - Bisacco
Gigi Ballista - major industrialist
Massimo Serato - failed industrialist
Eva Brun - wife of failed industrialist
Luigi Casellato - police commissioner
Gigi Reder - servant
Ernesto Colli - worker
Enzo Fiermonte - union activist
Music
The film's music was composed by Ennio Morricone. Parts of the score have been used in the competitive programs of figure skaters, including Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze at the 2002 Winter Olympics and Johnny Weir at the 2010 Winter Olympics.