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Il sorpasso (1962) More at IMDbPro »
38 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Quintessential road-movie comedy is simply miraculous: hilarious, moving and thought-provoking, 24 February 2006
Author: debblyst from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bruno (Gassman), pushing forty, is a no-good con artist, a "vitellone": loud, hyperactive, exhibitionist, self-centered, narcissistic, immature, confrontational, untrustworthy and...irresistible. He leads the "easy life", his talent to cause trouble is only surpassed by his talent to disentangle himself from trouble — not always unscathed. One mid-summer holiday (the "Ferragosto"), he meets by chance Roberto (Trintignant), a young law student in his early 20s, terribly shy, slightly bored, docile, self-effacing and inexperienced. Bruno practically drags Roberto to his convertible Lancia Aurelia and together they hit the road from Rome to Lazio and Tuscany, an initiation trip for Roberto — and when it's over, you know this movie will remain in your heart and mind forever.
"Il Sorpasso" is THE definitive combination of comedy and road movie, and quite simply miraculous: how can a film be so funny AND emotional, light AND thought-provoking, classic AND modern? Well, some of the reasons:
-- The fabulous script, starting with three-dimensional flesh+blood characters Bruno and Roberto. Dino Risi (who holds a degree in Psychiatry, as his eye for psychological details shows) and experienced writing duo Ettore Scola and Ruggero Maccari (who had written by that time some 18 scripts!) create two of the most fascinating characters in movies: Bruno's layers coming off and Roberto's self-discovery building up before our eyes. The film excels in hilarious confrontational situations, finely drawn supporting characters (including drool-inducing 17y.o. Catherine Spaak as Bruno's sensible, lovely daughter; and Luciana Angiolilo as Bruno's no- nonsense, sensuously mature ex-wife); endlessly quotable lines (including the side-splitting remarks on Antonioni's "L'Eclisse" and the very spicy mating dance between Bruno and the Commendatore's wife); the underlying criticism of Italian society (the last breath of the economic boom of the 1950s that ultimately deepened the gap between rich x poor, bourgeoisie x proletariat, North x South, leading to chaos in the 1970s); and, surely, the heart-stopping finale.
-- Gassman and Trintignant are nothing short of magical: they know these are once-in-a-lifetime roles and, boy, they squeeze all the juice out of them ! Gassman (who said Bruno was probably his all-time favorite film performance) builds Bruno with tour-de-force physicality and boundless energy, from risky-driving, water-skiing and doing handstands to highly elaborate body work (his "choreography" as he gets out of the ladies' toilet is worth a 1,000 lines). When was a scoundrel so complex and irresistible? Contrastingly, Trintignant (at 32 but completely convincing as a young student) goes inwards, acting with practically his eyes and mouth only, and yet we can see the full blossoming of his joie-de-vivre and fascination with Bruno (notice the worshiping glow in his eyes as he listens to Bruno at dusk). When was a shy man ever performed with such intelligence, sensitivity and charm? To top it all, their interplay is wondrous: when they laugh heartily at the riotous hick twist party you know these two men have really bonded!
-- Direction/cinematography: film encyclopedias affirm road movies existed long before "Il Sorpasso", but which, again? THIS is the first MODERN road movie: no back projections, no studio stuff, no dinosaur automobiles, no stunt doubles, but two stars really driving that triumph-of-design convertible Lancia Aurelia (the film's third star and symbol of the Italian boom) with its matchless horn sound on the real desert streets of Rome on a real Ferragosto holiday, and then on Italian roads doing real, risky "sorpassi". The film takes places in just over 24 hours and the lighting is always spot on.
-- the music: back in 1962, it was not that usual to use pop hits as a commentary for the action. But listen to the words of "Guarda Come Dondolo" (Look How I Swing) and how it perfectly matches Bruno's swinging behavior. Vianello, di Capri, Modugno...who can resist those exhilarating Italian pop songs of the 60s?
In the Brazilian DVD extras, Risi recalls the idea for "Sorpasso" came when he went on a road trip with a trouble-making, hyperactive producer, who would drive to Switzerland just to buy a pack of cigarettes. The film's finale was disputed during shooting: the producer wanted a happy ending to save expenses with the last scene (you'll know why). "Il Sorpasso" finally opened to unenthusiastic critical reception and mild box-office but immediately became a word-of-mouth fever and a smash hit in Europe, Latin America and the U.S., having influenced generations of road movies world- wide, most notoriously Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" (from the title to the finale) and Wim Wenders' masterpiece "Im Lauf der Zeit" (whose protagonists were named Bruno and Robert after "Il Sorpasso").
Since this is a film to watch over and over again, purchase your own copy and notice the innuendos concerning Bruno and Roberto's sexual profiles. You can either laugh at how sex-deprived they are (Bruno brags a lot but he doesn't score once, not even with the waitress -- he's so sex starved he attacks the Commendatore's wife, his own ex-wife and even his own daughter in a black wig; Roberto is obviously a virgin); or, if you're in such a mood, count the numerous gay undertones (Bruno – the infinitely narcissistic 40ish mamma's boy -- using the ladies' toilet without a blink; Bruno teaching aunt Lidia how to apply cat-eye make-up; Bruno and Roberto's body contact especially after the night-club fight; Bruno giving up potentially easy conquests, such as the German girls and the waitress; Bruno instantly recognizing Occhio Fino is gay; Bruno jokingly to Roberto: "Well, you know, I don't fancy men but if even if I did you're not my type"; "When we get back to Rome I'll introduce yo to mamma and we can see each other every day" etc). It's just one more way to enjoy the richness of this brilliant comedy.
DO NOT MISS this insightful, hilarious, influential, fascinating, ageless film. "Il Sorpasso" is one of the best comedies of all time, a legitimate masterpiece from an era when Italian cinema was probably the best around.
21 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the ten best italian movies ever made!, 30 January 2000
Author: giovanni manara (mpvtfm) from Catania, Italy
I've seen this movie hundreds & hundreds of time, and I'm not tired yet to watch it, and this just because this movie represents how we italians were in the sixties and how we still are. It is probably one of the ten best italian movies ever made. If you are able to understand Italian, watch it in its original version.
20 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Tragicomedy at its best!, 11 May 2001
Author: sgurgolo
Italian movies are all the same. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry. No thrills, you never really HANG to your seat. This is an example for what italian cinema was meant to be but never was. This was avant-garde, with powerful acting and a great script. This was universal cinema, while nowadays is all partisan movies and mafia movies and tragic movies, even the world famous benigni gives a poor image of the potentials of Italian cinema. This is one of the BIG movies from italy, and even if Risi filmography aint full of masterworks, this is a movie that can make his name a BIG name in Movies History. Gassman and Trintignant and even Catherine Spaak dominate the scene and the country roads of Lazio and Toscana play their part as well. The tragedy is way before the final, and is all found in the unsatisfying way of life both main carachters are living. Italian tragicomedy at its highest peak, no competition at all! 10 out of ten.
15 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Longer review to follow, 6 November 2002
Author: acerf from California
I will only say for now, this is one SERIOUSLY GREAT MOVIE. Dino Risi must have been going through a good period in his life because never before or since have movies under his care (as Director) come out this well.
The story of a middle aged playboy and his short-lived, would be, apprentice, a shy student ... Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, are brilliant and 17 year old Catherine Spaak turns in a mind-blowing performance, surely the best "teenage" performance, ever, (think the Breakfast Club X 100) setting a very high, difficult bar for herself in the process.
As the previous reviewer said, 10 out of 10; now if we can only get a real re-release, not a damn bootleg.
** You know you're watching a ground-breaking movie when a guy, the playboy protaganist, "exhuberant" throughout, suddenly gives the game away. It happens in a scene at a beach shower, where he is singing zestfully - "a man in love with life," and then suddenly stops altogether, the game up and shrugs his shoulder. I don't know such a thing had ever been tried before in all of Cinema. The stunning effect when Vittorio Gassman, as the playboy, drops the mask that all wear (in Italy, literally one's "second face") is overwhelming, like a pistol shot on a deserted street.
Groundbreaking in every way and not a little frightening, like a summer day suddenly ruined by an angry quarrel! (pick a metaphor). SEE IT!
13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
deceptively light-hearted masterpiece, 1 May 2000
Author: withnail-4 from New Haven, CT
The first time you see this film, it might just pass you by as light-hearted, but the ending will force you to dwell on it. This is what happened to me. A closer look revealed that this is a profound, double-sided, paradoxical film. Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintagnant project opposite perspectives throughout the film, so that each scene contains both joy and sadness, intoxication and contemplation. As they drive from place to place, Gassman's life force is placed at a critical distance by Trintagnant's presence. Both performances are brilliant. A great film, poetic, bitter-sweet, unforgettable.
11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A movie milestone!!!, 19 October 2002
Author: Massimo Zeri from Los Angeles, California
Probably the best "costume satire" film ever made. Vittorio Gassman is perfect in the role of Bruno. Great cast especially the supporting role of J. L. Trintignant. Adorable and very sexy the beautiful teenager daughter of Bruno played by Catherine Spaak. Il Sorpasso depicted in great reality the sweet bitter life of the 60's in Italy. The perfect road movie, filled with deep characters and great locations between Rome (deserted during the peak summertime vacation of "ferragosto" and the overcrowded countryside of the coast between the Capital and the Tuscan Riviera). This film is filled with humor and sadness (If you don't understand Italian, you'll miss something but the movie language is international, and the subtitles will help you). DO NOT MISS IT! Bravo Dino Risi!
10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
A Movie I Could See Every Week and Not Be Bored With It, 4 March 2006
Author: larry garner (lbgarns@yahoo.com) from chicago
When Bruno hits the road in his Fiat Spider (or was it an Alfa Romeo?) with the nerdish Roberto, it's a whirlwind ride for the audience as well, with your emotions riding high throughout. Gassman's "Bruno" is as perfect a portrait as one can imagine of the Italian who just floats through life, never taking things or others very seriously, always finding shortcuts and discovering truths that others disparage or fear. He's the classic embodiment of the Italian "furbo" (wise guy), who thinks he knows how to "play" the world and all the people in it. One of the greatest cinematic explorations of the stuff of contemporary life you'll ever see and the possibilities (all too limited) of overcoming the alienation inherent in it.
10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
not an Alfa or Fiat but LANCIA!!!!!, 5 November 2004
Author: freya26 from netherlands
Actually it was a Lancia Aurelia B24 sport....It was one of the three main characters in this movie, so please let there be no misunderstanding about this marvelous car. The car represents the somewhat broken state Bruno is in when Roberto meets him. The paintwork is patched-up and the body is dented, but the the engine, character and spirit are still in top condition! Please also note that all the in-car shots were made on the road and not in the studio. This movie depicts how Italy in the beginning of the sixties was recuperating from the poverty resulting from war and fascism.
(Great movie!!!)
7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Masterpiece, 8 October 2006
Author: donlazaro from Inglewood, CA
This is simply one of the greatest films of all time. Yes, up there with "Modern Times" and "Los Olvidados," but for entirely different reasons. It is a convincing celebration of life that I have never experienced in any other movie. Gassman will move you to tears and laughter in a beautiful performance. The plot? An attempt to introduce a nerd to the world of chromatic living and accelerated emotion. Do the consequences matter? Yes? No? You'll love it anyway. If you can't get an English version, it doesn't matter. Listen to the original Italian and marvel at the significance of the depth and the architecture that penetrates the screen.
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Italians Made Great Films in the 60's, 30 September 2006
Author: ragosaal from Argentina
In the hot Roman summer law student Roberto casually runs into Bruno a strange but amusing man who is heading in his fancy sports car to a nearby beach to meet with friends. Bruno insists and Roberto decides to join him for the day. "Il Sorpasso" is about the relationship -of just that day- between two such a characters. Bruno thinks of nothing but enjoying life and is self confident, sort of a person that refuses to admit the pass of time (he's already in his forties and hasn't settled at all yet); Roberto, much younger, is a classic guy, sort of shy and obedient of his family's wishes about his future. At first Roberto doesn't approve of Bruno's idea of fun by insulting and humiliating people, but as they go together he turns into a sort of rebellion against his all planned and predictable life and shows a bit of admiration for the older man who doesn't go along with social premises.
Shot in beautiful Italy in the sort of "pop" early sixties, "Il Sorpasso" is a wonderful film which deals with true life and true characters. Dino Risi carries the film perfectly and shows us a great variation of common real life characters that one way or another get involved with Bruno and Roberto. The movie appears clearly as a comedy -and a real amusing one too- but at the very end it turns into drama and makes you think a lot. Classical 60's Italian music fits perfect.
Gassman is outstanding as the intelligent and sort of mean Bruno (I can't think of any other actor that could have played the role so perfectly) and Trintignant does a very good job too as the insecure and strcture minded Roberto.
A great movie worth seeing. You'll sure enjoy it.
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