In the years immediately following the First World War, in a small village near Trieste, which has returned to Italy, live the husband and wife Piero and Ines De Faralia. Unexpectedly, after an absence of 30 years, Count Paolo Balzeri, a general in the Austro-Hungarian army, Piero’s cousin and master of the house in which the elderly maid Basilia and many memories, such as the one of a red rose, placed in his room by a silent admirer when he was a young and brilliant officer, returns. Dispelling De Faralia’s fears, the townspeople welcome the noble fellow-citizen who, however, dies suddenly shortly after discovering Basilia in the act of laying the usual red rose. But was it the maid who had made the kind gesture so many years earlier? It is impossible to know, since, as Piero now learns, Ines was also among the count’s platonic and romantic admirers. Franz Joseph’s brief stay has awakened memories and feelings: the servant Rosa allows herself to be conquered by Dr Rascovich; Basilia approaches Andrea, a servant in a neighbouring house, perhaps the count’s half-brother; Pietro and Ines, after a brief storm of jealousy, get closer and invite Basilia to sit at their master’s table.
Genre: drama
Cast
Alain Cuny: Conte Paolo Balzeri
Elisa Cegani: Ines de Faralia
Giampiero Albertini: Andrea
Antonio Battistella: Zaccaria
Soundtrack Luis Bacalov
