Un Sacco bello (1980)

Director:

Carlo Verdone

Writers:

Leonardo Benvenuti (story) &
Piero De Bernardi (story) ...

Release Date:

19 January 1980 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Three stories, three characters all played by Verdone. The first is an awkward young man, who meet a Spanish tourist in Rome...

Plot Keywords:

Actor Playing Multiple Roles

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Carlo Verdone	...	Enzo / Ruggero / Leo / Don Alfio / Anselmo / Professor
Mario Brega	...	Mario Brega, Ruggero's father
Renato Scarpa	...	Sergio
Verónica Miriel	...	Marisol
Isabella De Bernardi	...	Fiorenza
Fausto Di Bella
Sandro Ghiani
Maria Mizar		(as Maria Mizar Ferrara)
Luciano Bonanni	...	Infermiere anziano
Filippo Ciro
Filippo Trincia
Pietro Zardini
Bruno Rosa
Eolo Capritti	...	Automobilista
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aldo Maccione

Also Known As:

Fun Is Beautiful (International: English title)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Medusa Produzione

italian masterpiece

Carlo Verdone here is maybe at his best (I also love with the same passion his `Bianco , Rosso e Verdone`), while transferring on the big screen some of the characters he played on the italian TV (a successful operation in this case). There are three stories and three main characters played by Verdone (he plays also a priest and a professor): Leo, Ruggiero and Enzo. Leo, to me, is a representation of the provincialism and traditionalism of some italians who don`t speak english and live with parents or grandparents even in the adult age, compared to the cosmopolitan Marisol who travels all around the world and lives without inhibitions.

Ruggiero is the part of the italian people who reject the italian traditional way of living, escapes from his tyrannic father (an unforgettable MARIO BREGA) who happens to be communist (`fascio a me? guarda che io non so` communista cosi`, so` communista cosi`!!` - untranslatable) but `italian style` (the father asks for help to a priest and a professor to convince his son to come back home). Ruggiero however, even if his choice - a hippy community, a wide phenomenon at that time - is ridiculized by the movie, is a winner compared to Enzo, the guy who wants to go to Praha to pick up easy girls (at that time communist and scandinavian countries were the place of legendary easy sex encounters in the popular italian mithology). The character of Enzo is, for me, a mix of Alberto Sordi`s Nando Mericoni (`Un americano a Roma`) and Vittorio Gassman`s Bruno Cortona (`Il sorpasso). I mean, Enzo is like Nando and a Bruno wanna-be. Enzo finds his way of life trying to emulate some kind of distorted american-style of life (`A voi fa fuma`? Smoke! `A voi fa beve? Drink!, `A voi sfragna`? Fuck!) and tries to find a mate for the journey and in order to escape his loliness (in his address books we read among the white pages: Olimpico, Stadio and Stadio Olimpico).

In conclusion a must-see movie for those who want simply to see a real comic movie and also a funny representation (but at the end somehow sad) of some italian ideal-types