Le stagioni del nostro amore (1966)

Vittorio Borghi is a journalist in his forties undergoing an existential crisis, caused above all by his romantic relationship with his young lover, Elena, and his definitive break with his wife, Milena. He therefore decides to return to the city of his youth, Mantua, which he had wanted to leave in search of professional fulfillment. There he meets his father’s friends, his schoolmates and his fellow Resistance fighters, with whom he had also shared the bitter political struggles of the postwar years. The events of the past that he recalls seem to rekindle the passions and emotions of youth. Yet, gradually, Vittorio comes to realize how those same people have changed: they are now far removed from their old political ideals, if not completely indifferent to them. He, too, shares their disillusionment and resignation. At last, he senses just how complete their mutual estrangement has become. His pilgrimage to the places of his youth ends bitterly on the banks of the Po, at a dance hall where a group of young men and women manage to get a jukebox working, cheerful and carefree, their ways and thoughts far removed from those of the generation to which Vittorio belonged.