Italian film star Rossana Podesta returns to the screen, after an absence of two years caused by illness, as Lilia the shapely leading lady of Paolo, il caldo, a study in eroticism written by Vitaliani Brancati. The film, which is set in the Twenties and Thirties, traces the relationship between Lilia and the central character, Paolo – a Sicilian Baron whose main interest in life is women. Before eventually ending her love affair with the sensual Sicilian, Lilia manages to slip through an enticing selection of seductive clothes, until she settles down to a conventional marriage. The clothes, by Tirelli of Rome, one of Italy’s largest theatrical costumiers, are modern interpretations of Twenties and Thirties styles; there are chunky furs, cream coloured foxes, flat berets, apache-type scarves, and saucy old-fashioned lingerie made from satins, laces, ribbons and ostrich fronds.

Photographed by Tazio Secchiaroli.

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, May 13th 1973.