Man, this has got to be one of the best italians films I've seen in a while. I can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia when I watch it. So much better than the "americanata" (Ciccio...western...) released several years later. Gassman's performance is superb (just watch his face reactions). Highly recommended!
PS. If you're interested in italian films, a good follow-up would be Mediterraneo or Il Postino.
It is good, no doubt about it.
As for the rest, personally, I like Italian Neorealism (call me old-fashioned...) and some of Fellini's films. And Moretti's "Caro Diario", too... In fact, there are quite a lot of Italian movies that I like. ;)
This is the first film in which I saw Agostina Belli. I was a child, but I still remember a cover of a magazine featuring her, with her red hair, wearing a denim blouse... (Funny, how "unimportant" details sometimes get stuck in one's memory... ;)
Anyone knows what happened to her? I mean, is there a particular reason why her career basically plumetted in the 1980s?
I have not seen the film but I assume it was very good, Gassman is an excellent actor. What irks me is that you are slighting the American version with Al Pacino (who by the way is sort of Italian,too). This I have seen and many times and I feel it is one of the best movies ever. The Carlos Gardel tango "Por una cabeza" dancing sequence, Pacino's speech at the end; an unforgettable film.
share« What irks me is that you are slighting the American version with Al Pacino (who by the way is sort of Italian,too). This I have seen and many times and I feel it is one of the best movies ever. »
The melodrama-remake is much more conventional than the original comedy, including a patriotic speech that is absolutely unthinkable in a Risi satire ! Moreover the remake is way, way too long. Profumo di donna says more in 101 minutes than this Martin Brest flick in 160 ! As for Mr. Pacino being Italian, well he is mostly an American with a few Italian influences... unless you believe in 'biological superstitions' (such as 'descent', 'ancestry', 'bloodlines...), like writer G. A. Borgese used to call them.
What do you mean that he is mostly American? He is 100% American in nationality and 100% Italian in ethnicity.
Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes.
''Ethnicity'' here is a euphemism of race. There is no "Italian race". « How improbable, arbitrary and fantastic are theories of race. » (Benedetto Croce). What Borgese (as well as Hannah Arendt with other words) calls "biological superstitions" is the mad-hatter belief that the fact of being Italian - to continue with that same example - is hereditary, transmitted through blood or genes, like species and subspecies in the animal reign. But it is not : it is a fact of civilization, i.e. acquired as opposed to innate, historical-cultural-spiritual as opposed to natural. It comes with living, education, influences, movies, books, TV, whatever ; thus it is also in perpetual transformation. Mr. Pacino was born and has been living in the United States, so he absorbed mostly America's english-speaking culture but also more specific Italian American influences. That's why I say he is mostly an American. Of course from the point of vue of citizenship - which you call nationality - that changes nothing to nothing : 100%, just like you said; and it is precisely what citizenship is made for. Behind the protective shield of citizenship, people are allowed to be and become whoever they are.
Imagine now we cast Pacino as a politician in of one those Italian political thrillers like Gomorra or L'Onorevole. He will have to train a lot, he will have to do a tremendous training job in order to end up being natural and convincing in the part of, say, a Roman or a Napolitan politician or what have you. Because there is a world of difference between Italianità di qui (North America) and Italianità di la (Italy). Those variations can't be explained nor justified through theories of ethnicity : they can be explained only for what they are, cultural facts. No one was ever Italian at birth. Even Italian fascists understood that (most of them anyway), as opposed to the nazis who believed full fledge in theories of blood.
I consider this version to be superior to the american remake, with its self-righteous praising of militarism (the scene of assembling the gun, Pacino's heroic speech at the end). Here we have a tale of humanity, with its weakness, despair, and ultimately a promise of happiness. I prefer happiness to heroism.
shareNot bad, but I would not recommend it to everyone. IMHO 6/10.
shareProfumo di donna is a superb movie but I recommend everyone who has seen this to check out Il Sorpasso (which is my favourite movie all time); also with Vittorio Gassman and also directed by Dino Risi.
shareMe not, i prefer like the OP, Italian realism this one is after the golden age, i.e. Germi, Bolognini, Bassati, Zurlini, De Sica etc.
Il Sorpasso focuses on a sort of personal complex about Gassman from the main character, it's a bit neurotic.
Yes, it's like life, i wouldn't recommend it to every one.
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nowhere as good as IL SORPASO. and even this one was very melodramatic - dialogues, acting, background score - everything was a bit over the top.
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