Details by Film
Il sorpasso
Streaming Options
Il mattatore
Streaming Options
Il vedovo
Streaming Options
Comedy ruled the box office in Italy from the late 1950s to the 1970s where the commedia all’italiana also found critical success. Great talent behind and in front of the camera delivered a series of brilliant films that gave an incredible spin on familiar genres with comedic overtones that often held a dark and biting critique of social mores that would provoke a challenge to a society in need of change. Feted at local awards ceremonies and European festivals as well as garnering attention from the Academy Awards this prestige would propel the films and filmmakers to international stardom but many would go unreleased in the UK for home viewing. At last, this ongoing series shines a light on this misunderstood filmmaking style with the first collection focusing on three films by master director Dino Risi, presented from new restorations and featuring a suite of contextualising extras.
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Neorealismo rosa - a visual essay by Italian cinema professor and author of Comedy Italian Style Remi Fournier Lanzoni on the softening of neo-realism which laid the groundwork for the emergence of commedia all’italiana
- Alberto Sordi - a visual essay by critic Kat Ellinger about the great Italian actor
- Trailer for Il vedovo
- Interview with Andrea Bini, author of Male Anxiety and Psychopathology in Film: Comedy Italian Style
- Speaking with Gassman - documentary on the working relationship between Vittorio Gassman and Dino Risi, by Risi’s son Marco (2005)
- Love & Larceny - Michel Hazanavicius on Il Mattatore, an appreciation of the film and Vittorio Gassman by the director of The Artist
- Trailer for Il mattatore
- Appreciation of the film by Italian cinema expert Richard Dyer
- Archival interview with Dino Risi by critic Jean A. Gili (2004)
- Jean-Louis Trintignant on Il Sorpasso - an introduction by the actor for a French TV broadcast of the film (1983, 8 mins)
- L’estate di Bruno Cortona - Castiglioncello nell’anno del Sorpasso (Gloria De Antoni, 2012) - an extract from the documentary made for the 50th anniversary of Il Sorpasso featuring the cast and crew
- On a Trintignant Kick - An audio essay and tribute to Jean-Louis Trintignant by critic and author Tim Lucas, looking at his life and work in the 1960s (2023, 58 mins)
- Trailer for Il sorpasso
- Limited Edition 80-page perfect bound booklet featuring new writing by scholars and critics including Robert Gordon on the commedia all’italiana boom, Gino Moliterno on Il vedovo; Pasquale Iannone on Age and Scarpelli and the key screenwriters of the commedia all’italiana movement, Christina Newland on Italian machismo and Il sorpasso; a newly translated interview with Dino Risi by Lorenzo Codelli; and extracts of writing by Risi