*2022 stock* In Adua e le Compagne, a desperate drama with no way out, Piero Piccioni's jazz is the master, a constant counterpoint to the story even in its most excruciating moments (Adua's revolt in the pre-final, dressed as a prostitute in front of the clients of the trattoria to discredit the scoundrel who would like to continue exploiting her). A precise relationship of collision between image and music that would characterize much of Pietrangeli's later cinema (La visita, and of course the incredibly light-hearted and at the same time dramatic tune of Io la conoscevo bene, also by Piccioni, as well as the frequent use of songs), and which emerges as one of the many expressive stratagems used by the author to reveal the nature of a national genre to himself.