Lady Caliph (La Califfa)

Lady Caliph, known in Italian as La Califfa, is a 1970 Italian-French drama. Alberto Bevilacqua both wrote and directed it, and it runs about 99 minutes. It was entered into the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. It counts today as a rare film that is not easy to see.

Romy Schneider and Ugo Tognazzi share the leading roles. The cast also includes Marina Berti, Roberto Bisacco, Gigi Ballista, Guido Alberti, Massimo Serato, Franco Ressel, Giancarlo Prete, Stefano Satta Flores, Gigi Reder and Gianni Rizzo. Critical commentary dwells on Bevilacqua's effort to go deeper into the character Schneider plays, though it finds the results less than convincing.

The film is the first step in Bevilacqua's career as a director. The writer-director chose to bring his own novels to the screen himself, and began with a work he had written about ten years earlier. The music stands out and is credited to Ennio Morricone.