Director: Valerio Zurlini
Story and screenplay: Leo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, and Valerio Zurlini
Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin, Luciana Angiolillo, Renato Baldini, Riccardo Garrone, Elsa Albani, Corrado Pani, Gian Maria Volonté
Country: Italy
Running Time: 121 min
Year: 1961
BBFC Certificate: 12
Tunisian born Claudia Cardinale is one of the most iconic actresses of the classic Italian cinema period of the 1960s. Cardinale appeared in many masterpieces from the likes of Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard, Federico Fellini’s 8½ and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West.
One of her earliest roles came in Valerio Zurlini’s quite wonderful Girl with a Suitcase. The film follows Aida (Claudia Cardinale) who we first meet being unceremoniously dumped at a mechanics garage by her playboy boyfriend Marcello (Corrado Pani). Aida’s suitcase is symbolically left by the car as Marcello speeds away.
Aida, who had prior to the film’s opening left a man herself, Piero (Gian Maria Volonté), tracks Marcello down to his home but he avoids meeting her, instead sending out his 16-year-old brother Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin), with whom he lives with their overbearing aunt (Luciana Angiolollo).
Lorenzo gives Aida a false surname to send her off his brother’s scent but immediately takes a liking to her and begins spending a lot of time with her, and is clearly smitten. Lorenzo sneaks out of the family home to avoid detection by his aunt for his meetings with Aida, who has no idea that he is the brother of Marcello.
We witness their bourgeoning friendship and learn much about both characters for much of the runtime before Lorenzo comes home too late one time too many after meeting with Aida, and is caught sneaking in by his angry aunt. The family priest learns of this and chastises Aida for having a friendship with a 16-year-old, asking her to leave the town and revealing that Lorenzo’s brother is Marcello.
Along the way are numerous surprises and two standout sequences involving Aida and the man she left, Piero, the first happening before the revelations of her conversation with the priest and the second after it. I’ll return to those scenes shortly.
Director Zurlini masterfully crafts a tale that’s both coming of age drama (for Lorenzo), and a keenly observed look at different classes in Italy at the start of the 1960s. The upper classes (Marcello and Lorenzo and their family) are frequently seen either throwing Aida away or throwing money at her. She’s treated as a commodity or someone to be pitied. Her dialogue scenes, particularly with Lorenzo, provide a rich background to her character and her upbringing and difficulties, showing a different class, giving her a humanity and an identity and showing she is far more than the men she meets. The character of Aida is brilliant, strong and resilient.
All of the characters show us so much about their emotional state and motivations from their faces, beautifully shown by the camera work. Lorenzo in particular shows so much unsaid from his facial gestures, rather than what he has to say. He wants to form a bond with Aida, by throwing money or other kind gestures at her – clearly in awe of her.
Similarly, the first time we meet Piero is dialogue free. Piero meets with Aida at a railway station, as Lorenzo watches on from the waiting room. It’s a scene that’s elevated due to the use of sound. We watch as the former lovers talk, before the latter grows angry and the former sad, with Lorenzo watching on nervously. We don’t hear what they say, instead listening to the sounds of the railway station where they meet, before Aida leaves their meeting in tears. It’s a standout sequence in the film.
When Aida and Piero meet again later, even more briefly there is dialogue before Piero’s rage boils over into brief violence. In both scenes, Cardinale and Volonté are phenomenal, they’re masterclasses in dialogue free and dialogue rich acting.
The suitcase of the title is occasionally seen, usually when Aida has been left by a man or moving on to somewhere else. It’s very much a symbol of her isolation and loneliness. A suitcase holds the physical possessions that make up a life, and it’s treated by the male characters in the film in the same poor way Aida and her life are just left behind.
Cardinale is fantastic as the main character, though she was dubbed by Adriana Asti. In interviews Cardinale, who spoke fluent French, revealed she could speak no Italian when she arrived in the European country, hence the dubbing, in what was one of her earliest film roles. This doesn’t detract from how fantastic her performance is – from laughter and joy to sadness and anger, she runs through the gamut and it’s an acting masterclass.
Perrin and Pani are both great as two very different brothers, and with Cardinale drive forward the story, and special mention again for the great Volonté. Best known for roles in the likes of Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion, here he’s a ball of rage, and the source of escalating tension, despite the short time he’s onscreen.
The cinematography by future frequent Mario Bava collaborator Mario Serandrei is first-class, from striking establishing shots on location to close ups of Cardinale and beautifully framed shots of other characters, each image is very carefully framed, giving a sense of place as well as people.
With this release my interest in director Zurlini is already piqued. Zurlini directed documentary shorts before turning to feature films, making less than ten features in his career. I hope more of these will make their way onto UK Blu-ray, as based on this feature he was a director of some talent.
In closing, I thoroughly enjoyed Girl with a Suitcase, it’s an incredibly engrossing coming of age story, and tale of class, with a strong female lead, other marvellous characters, fantastic performances, and a story that has some surprises along the way. It is beautifully shot and masterfully directed. It’s one of my personal favourites of the films released by Radiance so far.
Film: 
Girl with a Suitcase is released on limited edition Blu-ray by Radiance Films on 28th April 2025. The 4K restoration is a revelation; the film looking absolutely phenomenal. The sumptuous black and white cinematography looks striking, each shade of black, grey and white shining, and detail is fine and incredibly rich. The audio also sounds great.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES
4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by the Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Camelia and Titanus
Interview with assistant director Piero Schivazappa (2006)
Interview with screenwriter Piero De Bernardi (2006)
Interview with film critic Bruno Torri on Zurlini’s career (2006)
Visual essay about the film by Kat Ellinger (2024)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Giuliana Minghelli and an overview of the US critical reception by Cullen Callagher.
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Three interviews are included on the disc, all from 2006 and all are rewarding, providing some fascinating insight into the film, some of the major players in front of and behind the camera and plenty more. The first is with assistant director Piero Schivazappa. The 20-minute interview sees Schivazappa sharing his experiences of making the film, working with Zurlini and how they met, which is a particularly interesting story. There’s also an intriguing recollection of the first thoughts he had when receiving the script for Girl with a Suitcase.
Up next is a 17-minute interview with screenwriter Piero De Bernardi, who shares his own recollections of meeting and working with Zurlini and of the film. He particularly focuses on the director’s passions on and off screen, with some intriguing snippets of information about working with the likes of acting great Alain Delon. There’s also a neat anecdote about Cardinale reading a description of her character in the film for the first time.
The final interview sees film critic Bruno Torri take a 17-minute look at director Zurlini’s career. He covers the director’s 12 or so documentaries and how working on these set him up well for his feature film career. We hear about his films and their, and the director’s, place in Italian cinema history. Zurlini didn’t work for four or so years after his feature debut and his difficult relationship with cinema and producers is discussed, in what is another highlight of the interview.
All three interviews are great and spend much of their time giving insights about the director, and this only added to my interest in seeing more of his works on disc.
Finally on disc is a new visual essay about the film by Kat Ellinger, which runs for 14 minutes and looks at the film, its place in Italian cinema history and some of its themes. As is to be expected, Ellinger delivers a fascinating, informative and entertaining piece. She looks at female characters in classic Italian cinema, and how women were humanised in a way some female characters weren’t at the time, and much more. It’s excellent.
I wasn’t provided with the booklet, unfortunately, and despite the Radiance website stating the disc contains a trailer, none was to be found on my review copy.
Radiance have provided a fantastic audio-visual presentation of a very special film, supplemented by a great new visual essay and almost an hour of rewarding archival interviews. Highly recommended for fans of classic Italian cinema and Claudia Cardinale.
Disc/Package: [Rating: 4/5]
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