A romantic drama, set in beautiful Northern Italy, directed by Vittorio De Sica, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Faye Dunaway... Seems like a recipe for success, right?

Alas, no. It just doesn't work at all.

You can't feel much for the two main characters because you don't really get to know them. Valerio (Mastroianni) is an engineer who lives with a girlfriend in Milan. Julia (Dunaway) is a divorced, American designer. They can afford to stay at gigantic villas and luxury alpine retreats. That's all the viewer gets. Valerio seems nice, if you ignore the fact that he's cheating on his girlfriend with Julia. Julia comes across as cold. She does a couple of things that seem kind (saving a mongrel from a dog-catcher, giving a maid a bunch of her fancy, expensive clothes) but then she also steals a guy's suitcase. Oh yeah, she comes close to pushing Valerio off a cliff at one point too. Oopsie!

Julia has one of those mysterious movie diseases, where the person is just a few weeks away from dropping dead but looks perfectly fine and exhibits no signs of illness or fatigue whatever. It's almost an hour in before Julia reveals her secret (but of course, if you watch the film now, it's given away in every description).

They fall madly in love in a week but what is their attraction based on, other than the physical? When they first get together Julia says, "Let's not say too much," but we could've learned more about them through their conversations, if they ever had any real conversations.

When Valerio answers the phone call from Maggie but then doesn't tell Julia about it, does he do it because he's selfish and wants to keep Julia with him or because he's trying to do what he thinks Julia wants? You just don't know him well enough to judge.

A couple of scenes that remind you that you're watching a 1960s Italian film occur on Julia and Valerio's first night together, when they attend a dinner party that seems like something right out of a Fellini movie. The well-off, gaudily attired and styled guests watch a slide show of ancient, erotic statuary and architecture, accompanied by a lecture. Afterwards, everyone draws cards for an adult version of "Seven Minutes in Heaven." Julia contemplates taking part in the game. Valerio (as yet unaware that she is engaging in her last hurrah) is turned off by the spectacle and angry that she would consider it.

The scene in front of the light of the projector, where Julia starts moaning about how she doesn't want Valerio's sympathy and he screams about how he loves her and then they sink to the table, kissing, was meant to elicit an emotional response and it did... It made me want to reach through the TV and slap them both! Get a grip, you frickin' drama queens!

Nitpicky thing that bugged me: There's a couple of slightly fuzzy close-ups of Julia towards the end of the film (when she's on the phone).

It's disappointing when you watch a film that turns out to not be very good. It's even more annoying when the movie has many of the elements that make up a good film; a potentially interesting premise, attractive leads, who are also good actors, a director who is capable of greatness, scenic locations, and it still turns out to be a dud. It's odd that it took 5 screenwriters to write this script. What's odder still is that it was adapted from a play so they weren't even writing a screenplay from scratch!

I guess that old saying about "too many cooks" is true.

I am so lucky and happy to finally have seen this rare film!!!! It's been released on DVD in Sweden!!!! It's been impossible to see this film. Has it been shown anywhere since its initial release in 1968?

The film was in that infamous book "50 Worst Films" by the Medved brothers. It's not bad at all, quite gripping actually if you like tragic romance on film. It's well made with good direction by de Sica and good acting by Faye Dunaway and Marcello Mastroianni.

It IS very much a European film from the 1960's. A bit too trendy for most and that means people will think it is dated. It's a nice document of its time. I do wonder why it wasn't a hit back then, since the film has two big stars and a well known director. Perhaps it's too stilted. I am a great Faye Dunaway fan so for me it was a HUGE pleasure to see this film. I also LOVE films from the sixties high on style.

It's strange that the plot is very similar to the huge hit Love Story from 1970, yet Amanti is completely forgotten. Maybe the story of two jetset people in luxurious environments became a bit tired after a while. The plot is rather thin with very little background explanation. The film also borrows a lot of elements from other films: two beautiful adults in a love affair (A Man and a Woman), a woman seeing shocking news on TV (Persona), beautiful decadent rich people (La Dolce Vita), rich people stealing in a shop (Breakfast at Tiffany's)...

Faye also reminds me of Monica Vitti walking around full of stylish angst in Antonioni movies. (Nothing wrong with that!) She even acts kooky like Vitti in some scenes! It's lovely to see Faye so relaxed on the screen. She seems to be genuinely enjoying herself and is absolutely luminous. Maybe it's because she fell in love with Marcello during filming. She gives a very sensitive performance as Julie.

One of those late, very sensitive and poignant Vittorio de Sica films, concentrating entirely on a personal relationship. I always regarded Faye Dunaway as one of the most beautiful actresses ever, but here she surpasses herself both in beauty and acting. Mastroianni is always reliable and original, and he actually matches Faye Dunaway more than well, although this is not Sofia Loren. There are two additional factors making this film extra remarkable, the fact that the script writer is Cesare Zavattini, who wrote all of de Sica's best films, and the overwhelmingly beautiful music by Manuel de Sica, his son, I suppose, that veils the film in a silken bandage of urgent soothing beauty, just like in his last film "The Voyage" with Sofia Loren and Richard Burton. The locations are among the loveliest in north eastern Italy, by the coast north of Venice and in a central hill station in the Dolomites. The story might seem superficial at first, especially if you don't know anything and haven't read anything about it, as the casual relationship by hap doesn't seem to amount to anything special, but it does. The cars play a prominent part in this film, as Mastroianni manufactures car accident protections, and there are several risky car journeys. which eventually must lead to some concern. Also the end is typical of Vittorio de Sica - all has been said, and life will continue anyway whatever happens - even the greatest passions are only episodes, even though they sometimes are marked unforgettable by the circumstances.