A definite highlight of Italian filmmaker Antonio Pietrangeli's career, on which would be tragically put a kibosh by his untimely death in 1968, in reality, people do die of drowning after falling off a cliff.

I KNEW HER WELL continues his streak of strong female presentation, first and foremost, it is a story about a prelapsarian countryside Italian girl Adriana (a 19-year-old Sandrelli uncannily likens a luscious Taylor Swift),who jauntily pursues her star-making dream in the capital city.

Pietrangeli and his co-writers configure a loosely chronological and episodic narrative detailing the interactions between Adriana and a smorgasbord of male characters, from boyfriends, bedfellows, exploiters to sympathetic have-nots, scathingly refracts the sprawling turpitude infesting the showbiz, that a young and unsophisticated Adriana is always given the short end of the stick, can never fall in love with the right guy, and occasional sparkling of kindness dims quickly since it is just not the right time, and the film's ostensibly disengaged observation gives way to an abrupt kicker in the end, where a dysphoria-stricken Adriana takes a radical step to purge her profound disillusion out of her existence.

Wonderfully concatenating manifold vignettes into a cogent case study pertaining to the disintegration of a starlet-to-be's pipe dream (often meld perfectly with era-specific tuneage and dancing routines),Pietrangeli enlists a swell group of multi-national supporting actors, natives Manfredi (unscrupulous),Salerno (pompous),Fabrizi (smarmy),Nero (four-square),joined by a French (Brialy),a German (Fuchsberger),an Austrian (Hoffman) and a Swiss (Adorf) to bolster the mainstay, among whom, Ugo Tagnazzi brilliantly steals the limelight with his backbreaking tap dance and abjectly obsequious attitude as a struggling has-been.

As our leading lady, Sandrelli is de facto a phenomenal wet-behind-the-ears ingénue, but also excels in bringing about a palpable strength of integrity and defiance that is well beyond her age, yet, more often than not, emanates a ghost of melancholia even when hijinks are in full swing. Unequivocally evokes a young girl's version of Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA, I KNEW HER WELL is an unalloyed Italian hidden gem exhumed from near obscurity with its shimmering amalgamation of vintage style, unaffected poignancy and incisive self-mockery.

To the pantheon of movies about the vicissitudes of the celebrity world we can add Antonio Pietrangeli's "Io la conoscevo bene" ("I Knew Her Well" in English). Stefania Sandrelli plays a country girl who moves to Rome in the hope of becoming a star, but gets objectified every step of the way. 'Twas always thus, I guess.

The Criterion DVD includes an interview with Sandrelli. In her opinion, the protagonist's suicide ends her life, but begins something else: the full realization that fame will not be the bed of roses that millions imagine. I like to think that if Pietrangeli had lived longer - he drowned in 1968 - he would've expanded on this theme in other movies. Definitely worth seeing. Similar movies are Carl Reiner's 1969 dramedy "The Comic" (starring Dick Van Dyke as a screen comedian whose fame gets the better of him) and John Schlesinger's 1975 drama "The Day of the Locust" (about the ugly side of 1930s Hollywood).

As for the other cast members. Ugo Tognazzi is best known as one of the nightclub owners in "La cage aux folles". Enrico Maria Salerno (Roberto) dubbed Clint Eastwood in the Italian releases of the Dollars trilogy. Franco Nero (Italo) is best known as the original Django, and had a bit part in Quentin Tarantino's version. He is now married to Vanessa Redgrave (their son directed her in an adaption of Wallace Shawn's politically-charged play "The Fever", co-starring Michael Moore and Angelina Jolie).

Ironically titled, beautifully shot and well-acted, this is a real 'sleeper' from late in the Golden Age of Italian cinema. Stefania Sandrelli perfectly embodies the naive girl from the provinces who wants to be a star. We never know what she can do well, apart from be charming and look terrific. But she believes there is a place for her in the firmament of the entertainment industry. Adriana gets to live only on the edge of the life she thinks she wants (nice apartment, clothes, wigs, parties, making money from sexual favors or modeling). From the start, she is taken advantage of by 'agents' or others who claim to be helping her. The numerous men she encounters are mostly ciphers themselves. Their only advantage is that they understand the ruthless nature of their world. Adriana is just their latest victim. One charmer skips out in the early morning from a hotel encounter, leaving Adriana stuck with the bill. Another, after a sexual episode, asks her to call another girl for him. In a brilliantly cringing scene, poor Adriana is humiliated in front of friends, as her long-awaited 'film debut' only serves to use her for comic fodder.

The film uses flashback to fill in Adriana's past: she was a normal, if very pretty, girl whose family has already nearly forgotten her. Like many of her kind, she craves the "love" that stardom should bring. As often with serious Italian film, the outcome is pessimistic.

Director Pietrangeli paces the film well and integrates the brief flashbacks to telling effect. Locations are well-used and often beautifully photographed. The film can occasionally remind a viewer of Robert Bresson's work: much faster paced, and with a higher energy level, but with a similar outlook on youth and the harshness of contemporary life. I'd go as far to say if this film had been directed by Bresson, it would be far better known. The international view of Italian cinema at the time was dominated by Fellini, Antonioni and a few others, while Pietrangeli, Monicelli and many fine film makers remain to be re-discovered. Here is a great place to start that re- discovery.