Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies - Softcover

Lanzoni, Rémi Fournier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826418228 ISBN 13: 9780826418227

Publisher: Continuum, 2009

Synopsis

This book explores the work of Dino Risi with The Easy Life (1962), The Monsters (1963), The New Monsters (1977), and Scent of a Woman (1974), Mario Monicelli with Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), The Great War (1959), and Amici miei (1975), also Pietro Germi with Divorce Italian Style (1961), as well as filmmakers as disparate as Federico Fellini with Amarcord (1973), Ettore Scola with Down and Dirty (1976), Lina Wertmüller with Swept Away (1974), Luigi Comencini with The Scientific Cardplayer (1972) and many others. In addition the volume explains how the genre was able to reveal during two decades (1960s and 1970s) many acting talents and confirmed the future legacy of picturesque icons such as Alberto Sordi, Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Giancarlo Giannini and Ugo Tognazzi, all of whom depicted the Italian resilience in the utmost idiosyncratic manner.

About this title

Review:

"The so-called Comedy Italian Style has been, in a certain way, affiliated with Neorealism, and is therefore considered as realistic comedy. But it is also a fusion of bitterness and charm, a genre of entertaining films that at the same time told something, in a particular moment, about an Italian society in rapid transformation. It was able to reveal on the big screen the common denominator among Italians: their gift for improvisation--a gift to look at reality with a smile." --Dino Risi"

Synopsis:

"Comedy Italian Style" is an essential guide to the glorious works and filmmakers who make the world laugh with them. It is for all lovers of enduring, wry, over-the-top, side-splitting humor on film. "Comedy Italian Style" "officially" known as commedia all'italiana, served as a national cinematographic patrimony for some and a satirical outlook on the economic boom years for others. In truth, it functioned as the principal economic engine of the Italian-film industry.For in many ways, Italy and Italians, are best known through these works of biting humor and incredible grace. The landmark comedies are those of the 1960s and 1970s, when the political soil helped germinate a new society. But this radiant tradition is not contained within two decades; it started in the days before Neorealism and is continued well into the 21st century.Above all, now readily available on DVD and no longer the sole property of esoteric museum collections or art houses, these movies are terrific fun.Internationally acclaimed, from the work of Dino Risi ("The Monsters"), Mario Monicelli ("The Great War"), and Pietro Germi ("Divorce-Italian Style"), the high-water mark and high-wire act of commedia all'Italiana - its influence and tradition - are here explored through filmmakers as disparate as Federico Fellini ("8 1/2", "Amarcord"), Ettore Scola ("The Terrace"), Lina Wertmueller ("Swept Away"), Roberto Benigni ("Johnny Stecchino"), and many others.

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0826418228
• ISBN 13: 9780826418227
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288