San Sebastian Film Festival ::

DINO RISI

Italy

During World War II, a journalist publishes a pamphlet encouraging people to fight against the Germans. He soon gets found out and must flee. During his escape, he meets a young woman and once the war is over they start living together. Through the couple's conflict with pragmatism and idealism, Dino Risi tells us of Italy's socio-political evolution.

IL SORPASSO / The Easy Life

DINO RISI

Italy

Bruno Cortona, jolly and fun-loving, happens to meet Roberto, a shy student, and invites him to join him on a day off. They set off from Rome. On their trip together, the younger Roberto feels more and more fascinated by his older mate's crazy way of life. After a few hours spent on a family visit, the trip builds towards an unexpected end. This is not only one of Dino Risi's m...

Bruno Cortona, jolly and fun-loving, happens to meet Roberto, a shy student, and invites him to join him on a day off. They set off from Rome. On their trip together, the younger Roberto feels more and more fascinated by his older mate's crazy way of life. After a few hours spent on a family visit, the trip builds towards an unexpected end. This is not only one of Dino Risi's most successful films but of Italian cinema as well.

MAFIOSO

ALBERTO LATTUADA

Italy

Antonio Badalamenti is a Sicilian who lives and works in Milan. Summer comes and he decides to spend his holiday, for the first time in Calenzano, his birthplace. The company manager takes this opportunity to send a parcel to Don Vincenzo, a local Mafia chief. From then on Antonio will find himself tangled in a Mafia scheme. This film won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian F...

Antonio Badalamenti is a Sicilian who lives and works in Milan. Summer comes and he decides to spend his holiday, for the first time in Calenzano, his birthplace. The company manager takes this opportunity to send a parcel to Don Vincenzo, a local Mafia chief. From then on Antonio will find himself tangled in a Mafia scheme. This film won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Festival in 1963.

I MOSTRI / The Monsters

DINO RISI

Italy - France

n this film, made up of 20 sketches, Dino Risi ironically portrays the caricatures of an equal number of characters who we could bump into around the corner. Risi's job as director, a tasty film script by the Age-Scarpelli tandem, and acting by immense Tognazzi and Gassman guarantee the film's interest and quality.

IL BOOM

VITTORIO DE SICA

Italy

This is one of De Sica's least well-known films. It is about Giovani Alberti's struggle to keep up his standard of living and to pay for splurging with his wife and friends. When the date comes for him to face his debts, he is forced to make a drastic decision.

LA DONNA SCIMMIA / The Ape Woman

MARCO FERRERI

Italy - France

One day, Antonio shows up with his slide projector at a refugees centre. There he meets María, a woman whose body is covered all over with hair. He senses that she could mean good business and decides to free her from the nuns' guardianship and show her to the public as a side-show at the fair. Then, he will marry her. However, her first pregnancy will bring trouble.

MATRIMONIO ALL'ITALIANA / Marriage Italian Style

VITTORIO DE SICA

Italy - France

This well known film, based on Eduardo de Filippo's comedy "Filumena Marturano," tells us about a young woman from Naples who has been a prostitute since adolescence. One day, a prosperous businessman decides to take her into his home and avail himself of both a lover and someone to look after his mother. Since the wedding she seeks doesn't seem to materialize, she pretends to ...

This well known film, based on Eduardo de Filippo's comedy "Filumena Marturano," tells us about a young woman from Naples who has been a prostitute since adolescence. One day, a prosperous businessman decides to take her into his home and avail himself of both a lover and someone to look after his mother. Since the wedding she seeks doesn't seem to materialize, she pretends to be dying in order to marry her protector.

I COMPLESSI

DINO RISI, FRANCO ROSSI, LUIGI FILIPPO D'AMICO

Italy - France

A shy clerk who doesn't dare propose to his work mate, a jealous husband who fears his wife's artistic past might come to light, and a man with huge big teeth firmly determined to become a compère on T.V. make up the three episodes directed by Dino Risi, Franco Rossi and Luigi Filippo D'Amico in 1965.

IO LA CONOSCEVO BENE

ANTONIO PIETRANGELI

Italy - France - West Germany

By means of little anecdotes, the film shows different aspects of Adriana Starelli's personality. A farmer's daughter, starred by Stefania Sandrelli, she leaves her home and tries her luck in Rome. She manages to get temporary jobs as a model and small roles as an actress in films. However, her beauty and innocence prompt men to take advantage of her.

IO, IO, IO... E GLI ALTRI

ALESSANDRO BLASETTI

Italy

Sandro is a journalist who sets about to report on human selfishness. A great number of details extracted from his life with his own wife and his relationship with friends reveal how selfishness and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand in our daily lives. The cast is a parade of the actors and actresses in Italian cinema at the time.

L'IMMORALE / Two Much for One Man

PIETRO GERMI

Italy - France

Sergio feels he's a fortunate man to have come across three perfect women (Giulia, Adela and Marisa) with whom he's still deeply in love. He has got two problems, though: on the one hand, there's his financial situation; on the other hand, there's the short time 24 hours a day allow him to take care of the three and their offspring.

IL MEDICO DELLA MUTUA

LUIGI ZAMPA

Italy

Guido Tersilli is a doctor without much of a future. Doctor Bui's death offers him the opportunity to tend the members of a mutual benefit society so far run by the deceased. In order to get the job, he starts courting the widow but finally marries a younger, wealthier woman instead. He sets up a complicated system that will turn the society into a more and more profitable busi...

Guido Tersilli is a doctor without much of a future. Doctor Bui's death offers him the opportunity to tend the members of a mutual benefit society so far run by the deceased. In order to get the job, he starts courting the widow but finally marries a younger, wealthier woman instead. He sets up a complicated system that will turn the society into a more and more profitable business, which will stir up

BELLO, ONESTO, EMIGRATO AUSTRALIA SPOSEREBBE COMPAESANA ILLIBATA / A Girl in Australia

LUIGI ZAMPA

Italy - Australia

An Italian emigrant to Australia would like to get married but finds Australian women too free so he looks for a mail-order bride. Since he doesn't look the beau type, he includes a photo of a friend more handsome than himself in the letter he sends. In turn, the girl who gets the letter hides the fact that she's a

LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO

LUIGI COMENCINI

Italy

Every year, a very wealthy American old lady gives a couple the opportunity to win one million dollars by means of a card game. Alas, when fortune seems to favour the couple, fate plays its trick so that relationships between rich and poor continue the usual way. This bitter story once again shows the relevance of Italian critical comedy.

SONO STATO IO!

ALBERTO LATTUADA

Italy

Biagio Solise is a humble window cleaner who, from the tops of the skyscrapers, cherishes a dream that one day he will have Milano's high society at his feet. At night, back at home, loneliness weighs on him. It's at those moments that he dreams of a situation that'll make him famous. Once, during a gala performance at the Scala de Milano, the main singer is killed and Biagio S...

Biagio Solise is a humble window cleaner who, from the tops of the skyscrapers, cherishes a dream that one day he will have Milano's high society at his feet. At night, back at home, loneliness weighs on him. It's at those moments that he dreams of a situation that'll make him famous. Once, during a gala performance at the Scala de Milano, the main singer is killed and Biagio Salise is charged with the murder.

C'ERAVAMO TANTO AMATI / We all loved each other very much

ETTORE SCOLA

Italy

Through Antonio, Nicola and Gianni's friendship, Ettore Scola approaches the history of Italy from World War II to the time the film was made. The three friends took part in the Italian resistance movement against the German Army. However, life gradually draws them apart. Their paths meet occasionally nevertheless. The film

PANE E CIOCCOLATA / Bread and Chocolate

FRANCO BRUSATI

Italy

Giovanni Garafoni is an Italian emigrant who has a job as a headwaiter in Switzerland. One day his good luck goes on the rocks. After having been kicked out of work, he turns to a Greek friend. Things don't improve despite her help. As time goes by, he

PROFUMO DI DONNA / Scent of a Woman

DINO RISI

Italy

Having lost his eyesight and an arm in military manoeuvre seven years ago, Fausto now

ROMANZO POPOLARE / Come HOme and Meet My Wife

MARIO MONICELLI

Italy

Giulio, a worker in his fifties, unexpectedly meets his god-daughter Vincentina. This encounter is followed by others and a few months later they decide to get married, despite the gap in their ages. However, one day in the course of a trade union demonstration policeman Giovanni Pizzullo is wounded in the forehead. From

AMICI MIEI / My Friends

MARIO MONICELLI

Italy

Director Pietro Germi died in the process of shooting this film, and Mario Monicelli had to carry it to fruition. Five friends trying to flee from the boredom and monotony of daily life in Florence carry out a long series of practical jokes.

BRUTTI, SPORCHI E CATTIVI / Dirty, Mean and Nasty

ETTORE SCOLA

Italy

Giacinto lives with his big family in a shanty town outside Rome. He loses an eye in an accident at work and gets compensated with one million lire. However, instead of tending his family needs, he puts the money safely away. When the situation becomes unbearable, the rest of the family will have to make a drastic decision.

SIGNORE E SIGNORI, BUONANOTTE

Luigi COMENCINI, Nanni LOY, Luigi MAGNI, Mario MONICELLI, Ettore SCOLA

Italy

Twelve sketches directed by five well known Italian comedy directors depict a stinging portrait of a day's program on television. The criticism also embodies a fierce analysis calling into question the so-called fundamental pillars of society: Politicians, the Church, the Judiciary, Politics and so on, with no lack of references to the daily drama the underpriviledged have to f...

Twelve sketches directed by five well known Italian comedy directors depict a stinging portrait of a day's program on television. The criticism also embodies a fierce analysis calling into question the so-called fundamental pillars of society: Politicians, the Church, the Judiciary, Politics and so on, with no lack of references to the daily drama the underpriviledged have to face.

I NUOVI MOSTRI / Viva Italia!

MARIO MONICELLI, DINO RISI, ETTORE SCOLA

Italy

14 years span between the episodes in "I monstri" and the 12 sketches that make up this film. Three great directors (Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli) and three great actors (Sordi, Tognazzi and Gassman) throw a critical, witty yet lucid glance at various topical aspects of Italian life then and now.

UN BORGHESE PICCOLO PICCOLO / A Very Petit Bourgeois

MARIO MONICELLI

Italy

Giovanni Vivaldi is a civil servant who works for a ministry in Rome.

ECCE BOMBO

NANNI MORETTI

Italy

The author of "Caro Diario" (Dear Diary) tells us of Michele's daily life, his cat-and-dog relationship with his family, his dull friends and his peculiar love stories. The result is a pitiless portrait of a generation submerged in a sea of confusion and contradiction, all of which is wittily and sharply portrayed.