This is the very first film of the modern women's movement. Produced in 1971, it caused controversy and exhilaration. It was widely used by consciousness-raising groups to generate interest and help explain feminism to a skeptical society. The film looks at female socialization through a personal look into the lives of six women, age 4 to 35, and the forces that shape them--teachers, counselors, advertising, music and the institution of marriage....

Guiliana is the wife of Ugo, a plant manager in Ravenna. Recently released from the hospital after a car accident, Giuliana is in dire straits mentally, but Ugo thinks she's just hysterical. When she meets the charming Corrado, he seems sympathetic, shares her feeling of being lost, but he doesn't fully understand and his amatory advances are not what she needs. Living in the shadow of industry, surrounded by the blighted landscape of the mechanized...