L'Italien (2010)

Life smiles at Dino Fabrizzi,a cool forty-two-year old Italian. Not only is he the most successful salesman at The Maserati dealership in Nice but he has had a steady (and hot) relationship... See full summary »

Director:

Olivier Baroux

Writers:

Olivier Baroux (adaptation), Jean-Paul Bathany (adaptation),

Stars:

Kad Merad, Valérie Benguigui, Roland Giraud

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kad Merad	...	Mourad Ben Saoud, alias Dino Fabrizzi
Valérie Benguigui	...	Hélène
Roland Giraud	...	Charles
Philippe Lefebvre	...	Cyril Landrin
Guillaume Gallienne	...	Jacques (as Guillaume Gallienne de la Comédie Française)
Sid Ahmed Agoumi	...	Mohamed Ben Saoud
Farida Ouchani	...	Rachida Ben Saoud
Saphia Azzeddine	...	Amel Ben Saoud
Tarek Boudali	...	Karim
Nathalie Levy-Lang	...	Nadège
Karim Belkhadra	...	Abdel
Alain Doutey	...	André
Arielle Sémenoff	...	Marie-Paule
Guy Lecluyse	...	M. Maizière
Raphaële Germser	...	Geneviève

Storyline

Life smiles at Dino Fabrizzi,a cool forty-two-year old Italian. Not only is he the most successful salesman at The Maserati dealership in Nice but he has had a steady (and hot) relationship with Hélène,his girlfriend, who is beginning to contemplate marriage. To crown it all he is nearly certain to land a senior position at the dealership. But there is a tiny wee problem. The funny Italian is not Italian at all! His real name is Mourad and he is actually of Algerian origin. So, when to please his father (who does not know his son pretends to be Italian), he promises him to celebrate Ramadan he is bound to get into serious trouble...

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Plot Keywords:

fake accent | car salesman | singing in a car | car dealership | double identity

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

14 July 2010 (France)

Also Known As:

Fasten auf Italienisch

Filming Locations:

Algiers, Algeria

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eskwad, Pathé, M6 Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

French visa # 112613.

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Soundtracks

"Ti Amo"
Written by Giancarlo Bigazzi and Umberto Tozzi
(From album "E nell'aria...ti amo", 1977)

User Reviews

L'Italien

A French comedy about identity recognition, our protagonist is torn among being a French, an Arabian and an Italian at the same time, when it comes the month of fast, all his white lies begin to crack down.

Frankly speaking, there is skimpy of novelty in the whole film, the comedic atmosphere is a little bit bland, the twist-and-turn is hackneyed as if I was the mastermind behind it. But on the other hand, the film is a great pleasure to watch, you will not feel disgusted or uncomfortable, it is what I call an innocuous comedy, which is a suitable treat when the timing is that all you need is a light comedy to kill some time before bed.

Kad Merad now has become the byword of contemporary French comedic films, this time his acting smoothly spikes with a more personalized empathy, the struggle of coming out of the "nationality" closet towards his girlfriend, his family and his boss, conquering these three gigantic barriers.

P.S.: I learned quite a lot new information about Ramadan, Muslim and Jew (not totally by the film itself), but anyway, it's always great to learn something new from films.