Avere Vent'anni / L'ambizioso

Soundtracks:

No music has ever been released from the film  “To Be Twenty” and on the master tapes  from the recording session we only found the songs played during the beginning and ending credits. These songs, played by Gloria Guida, include instrumental versions with a choir. The other music on the film strip (dance music, country music with guitar and Oriental music) could not be located. We assume it was M° Campanino archive material.

For “The Climber,” C.A.M. only released a 45 LP record (AMP 150) with two tracks. On our CD we used the master tapes in stereo from the original recording session. We were allowed to release every note recorded, including the song from the single and alternative version, the frenetic detective story theme from side B, and the romantic themes for the brief love story between the criminal and the young shop assistant. 

TO BE TWENTY (Avere Vent’Anni)

Director and Cast:

Directed in 1978 by Fernando Di Leo. Starring Gloria Guida, Lilli Carati, Ray Lovelock, Vittorio Caprioli, Vincenzo Crocitti, Leopoldo Mastelloni, and Licinia Lentini.

Plot:

Lia (Guida) and Tina (Carati) are two beautiful girls, independent and emancipated, who meet on a beach. They decide to hitchhike together,  and along the way they meet Michele Palumbo (Caprioli). Michele, called “the Nazariota,” runs a commune in Rome where many strange people live.  The two girls decide to stay in the hippy commune selling encyclopedias to earn their keep and exploring their sex life. During an inspection, the police find drugs and the two girls are sent back to their hometowns. While hitchhiking back, they stop in an isolated restaurant and are harassed by a group of men. Tina and Lia manage to escape into the forest, but the gang finds the two girls and savagely rapes and kills them. 

Notes about the film:

The film was immediately pulled from Italian cinemas for its violence. It was then cut and redone with a happy ending. The new ending completely changed the meaning of the film and it didn’t make much money and wasn’t released in many cinemas. 

THE CLIMBER (L’Ambizioso)

Director and Cast:

Directed in 1975 by Pasquale Squitieri. With Joe Dallesandro, Stefania Casini, Mario De Luca, Nando Murolo, Raymond Pellegrin, Benito Artesi.

Plot:

Unsatisfied with his role in the gang of organized crime, the young trafficker Aldo (Dallesandro) slights the boss of the crime group in Naples, Don Enrico (Pellegrin), and is forced to run away to Rome where he is rescued by a young shop assistant named Luciana (Casini). In Rome Aldo organizes his own gang. When he feels strong enough, he returns to Naples where he faces Don Enrico and forces him to agree to give him half of the “business.”  But things start to go bad for the young high-flyer. His girlfriend Luciana kills herself after the old boss makes her believe he had been disowned by Aldo. Aldo kills Don Enrico, but eventually some other criminal bosses eliminate him.