Comedy, Italian Style

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Italy became known for its flamboyant genre-production targeted at an international audience: for carefully choreographed westerns and for blood-bathed horror films (like Suspiria, our Halloween film this fall). Just a handful of years before, though, there was a renaissance in production of a genre with more local flare: comedy. Helmed by directors of popular and art fare alike, and a training ground for rising stars like Mastroianni and Loren, the comedies produced in the early 1960s are evidence of both a thriving domestic market and a rising international profile. This series of 3 films is entirely composed of new 35mm prints!

Co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian. Special thanks to Daniela Francesca Busciglio, Brian Belovarac (Janus Films) and Eric Di Bernardo (Rialto Pictures).


Friday, September 24, 7:00 p.m.
Divorce, Italian Style (Divorzio all'italiana)
Italy, 1961, 35mm, b/w, 105 min., subtitled
Directed by Pietro Germi
With Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli

Baron Ferdinando Cefalù (the irresistible Mastroianni) longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela (Sandrelli), but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia (Rocca). His solution? Since divorce is illegal, he hatches a plan to lure his spouse into the arms of another and then murder her in a justifiable effort to save his honor. Winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Saturday, October 23, 7:00 p.m.
Mafioso
Italy, 1962, 35mm, b/w, 104 min., subtitled
Directed by Alberto Lattuada
With Alberto Sordi, Norma Bengell, Ugo Attanasio.

An irresistibly funny dark comedy and one of the first Italian features to tackle the issue of the mafia, Mafioso is about a factory worker who stumbles into the role of hitman when he brings his family back to Sicily, his ancestral home. “An utter blast! Happily blends low comedy, high sentiment, neorealism and farce – almost a film festival unto itself!” (A.O. Scott).

Saturday, November 6, 7:00 p.m.
Seduced and Abandoned (Sedotta e abbandonata)
Italy, 1963, 35mm, b/w, 115 min., subtitled
Directed by Pietro Germi
With Stefania Sandrelli, Saro Urzì, Aldo Puglisi

Shotgun weddings, kidnapping, attempted murder, emergency dental work—the things Don Vincenzo will do to restore his family’s honor! Pietro Germi’s Seduced and Abandoned was the follow-up to his international sensation Divorce Italian Style, and in many ways it’s even more audacious—a rollicking yet raw series of escalating comic calamities that ensue in a small village when sixteen-year-old Agnese (the beautiful Sandrelli) loses her virginity to her sister’s lascivious fiancé.

Location:

UW Cinematheque

4070 Vilas Hall

821 University Avenue.

We are free and open to the public.