Lipstick (1960) User Reviews

Authentic and enjoyable

[Keltic-2 · 8/10 · 10 July 2000]

From the opening shots until the closing sequence, _Il Rossetto_ has the gritty feel of reality. This realism is generated by the use of grainy black and white stills as a background for the initial credits, is bolstered by the discussions of a group of worldly young girls, and is thereafter maintained for the duration in a seamy world of grifters, police, hookers and poverty.

The male lead, Pierre Brice, brings to the screen the same suave arrogance and sinister menace that a young Robert Wagner brought to a similar role in _A Kiss Before Dying_. The young female lead (Laura Vivaldi) is, similarly, very believable as an adolescent whose good character is cast into disrepute by the sexist assumptions of the police, her mother and others involved in the murder case.

Precursor To The Most Beautiful Wife

[Bezenby · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

Calling this film a giallo is a bit of a stretch, but what we do have here is an early murder mystery from Damiano Damiani. Kind of like a dry run for Damiani's later The Most Beautiful Wife, it involves a young teenage girl suddenly thrown into the complex world of adults and the law.

Silvana is the girl in question, secretly in love with much older neighbour Gino, who is oblivious until Silvana's friends reveal it to Gino in the street. Another neighbour, a prostitute, is beaten to death in her home and the police descend on the place, arresting a deliveryman in the ensuing media frenzy. Gino tells the police that he's never seen the prostitute before, but then if that's the case why does Silvana tell Gino she saw him leaving her flat a few days previous? Gino, all of sudden, takes an interest in Silvana, which is bit dodgy as he's due to get married, and she's only thirteen.

Apart from the mystery of who killed the prostitute, the plot mainly focuses on the relationship between Gino and Silvana. Gino has to act interested in Silvana to stop her going to the police while hiding it from his fiance, and we know that Silvana is prone to making stuff up, so is Gino guilty or just trying to cover up his visits to a hooker. Even the cops are divided as some side with Silvana and some think she's at it.

In The Most Beautiful Wife, we knew Ornella Muti was in the right but here we're not quite sure of Silvana. The films are similar as unrequited, naive love results in clashes with police, parents and family. It the personal side of these characters that makes the film stand out. Even Silvana's friends turn against her, and her mother is having an affair with a married man and is willing to throw Silvana in a boarding school to be with him.

Damiani had tons of talen and even when a film of his doesn't quite work (like the Witch In Love), every one of them stands out from the pack.

Precocious games

[dbdumonteil · 4 November 2008]

Although French ,born in Brest,Pierre Brice is virtually unknown in his native France;in Germany he is looked upon as an icon,thanks to the Winnetou saga.He resembles Alain Delon and that may account for his failure in France.

'Il Rossetto" is an exciting psychological thriller .A hooker has been slain.A fourteen-year old girl claims she saw her neighbor coming out of the victim's flat.Laura Vivaldi gives a stunning portrayal of that complex girl :is she the good girl ? a holier-than-thou? a romantic girl in love with Gino? a lipstick Lolita? Probably all this.

Pierre Brice is equally effective as the object of her love .Supporting cast includes Georgia Moll who was popular in the sixties and Bella Darvi -Her Name came from Darryl (Zanuck)and his wife Vicky-whose (artificial)short-lived career tragically ended .

The Silvana /Gino relationship is intense,often harsh and ruthless.Do not miss this movie if you have the chance to catch it on TV.

Like this? try these ......

"These three" (1936) and "the children's hour" (1962) by William Wyler.

"Les Risques du Métier" (1967) by André Cayatte

Exceptional!

[RodrigAndrisan · 10/10 · 20 June 2022]

Especially the last scene when the limping young girl appears, the one which Gino (Pierre Brice) had once abused in the past. Extraordinary performances by Pietro Germi, Laura Vivaldi, Pierre Brice, Giorgia Moll. A movie that absolutely worth seeing, Damiano Damiani it's a brilliant director.

A young girl using lipstick for the first time leading to fatal consequences

[clanciai · 10/10 · 10 November 2023]

This is something of a shocker and a very unusual thriller where the main character is a young girl of 14 who lives with her mother, and who has a crush on a handsome neighbour in the opposite house, whom she watches through the window as he plays the guitar. The music of the film is very important and eloquent, underlining the critical psychological moments, as this actually is a psychological thriller. A murder is committed on a prostitute in a shabby hotel, that's the plot, the wrong man is arrested to begin with, but Laura Vivaldi as the young girl has seen her ideal coming out from the hotel and does not know what to think of it. When he learns she has seen something he takes an intimate interest in her, being very exact and concerned about her not telling anything to the police, which only raises suspicions of the audience against him. There are many poignant scenes here in the tradition of Visconti and de Sica, and the neorealism keeps mounting and sharpening as the film goes on, reaching a climax in the final confrontation. This is a jewel not to be missed, eloquently following up the tradition from the early neorealistic masterpieces of Visconti and de Sica.

See this if you get a chance

[lazarillo · 18 December 2009]

A prostitute is robbed and murdered. A fourteen-year-old girl (Laura Vivaldi) sees a suave gigolo come out of the hotel where the murder occurred. She has a schoolgirl crush on the handsome man though, so instead of reporting the crime she befriends him. Only after he takes her out for a drive, kisses her, and the nearly brains her with a glass bottle, does she go to the police. But they don't believe her because among other things she wears lipstick.

This is an early neo-realist social drama by criminally underrated Italian director Damiano Damiani. It is somewhat similar to the British film "Tiger Bay" and the William Castle film "I Saw What You Did", but it has far more social commentary. The gigolo has a high society girlfriend who refuses to believe he could be guilty. The girl's mother is much more concerned about her crumbling relationship with a married man than she is about her daughter. The cops, meanwhile, are much less worried that the girl might have witnessed a murder than that her virginity might have been compromised (they even insist that a doctor inspect her!). Ironically, next to the girl, the most sympathetic character might be the alleged killer (who the viewer doesn't know FOR SURE is guilty). There's also a quite touching scene where the other prostitutes rally around their fallen comrade and protest the police inaction. Clearly, Damiani identifies with the people on the margins of society, whoever they may be.

This movie no doubt influenced Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Grim Reaper" (which is also centered around a murdered prostitute) a few years later. But of course Bertolucci would become a respected art director while Damiani is most famous internationally for "Amityville Horror 2". Damiani's most successful social drama, meanwhile, (only very recently re-released) was "The Most Beautiful Wife", which launched the international career of Ornella Muti. Vivaldi is easily as in good in this as Muti is in "The Most Beautiful Wife", but whereas Muti was an extraordinarily beautiful fourteen-year-old girl when she made that movie, Vivaldi was a more ordinary looking one, which may be one of the reasons she didn't have nearly the same kind of career. It's really funny how the cinema works sometimes.

This movie is VERY hard to find and the version I saw had half the English subtitles cropped out, but I would certainly recommend seeing it if you get a chance.