After three months sheltering as lovers in her grandparents’ old mill, Silvio unceremoniously bolts to rejoin his comrades, but a year later - with the war now over - he finds himself back in the Lombardy region on assignment for his small, underfunded left-wing newspaper. Theirs is a love forged not in iron, but by an iron, which is what Lake Como hotel worker Elena (Massari) uses to kill a German soldier about to shoot Silvio (Sordi), a Roman journalist and partisan fighter. It’s a battle of wills and compromises across 17 years of Italian history, played out in the sharply timed exchanges anchoring Rodolfo Sonego’s narrative, the no-nonsense vitality of Risi’s scenework and the expressive, tough performances of Sordi (of “Mafiosi” fame, and a commedia all’italiana mainstay) and Massari (fresh from “L’Avventura”). No year is too late to enjoy this vinegary love story - think Albert Brooks’ “Modern Romance” shot through with politics - between a self-absorbed Resistance veteran played by Alberto Sordi and Lea Massari’s wartime amore turned wife the former having moved from fighting fascists to guarding his ideals from corruption, the latter looking to breathe more easily in Italy’s economic miracle. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials. The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s now been rectified with a 4K restoration through classics specialists Rialto Pictures. But his 1961 film “Una Vita Difficile” (“A Difficult Life”) - one of his more Billy Wilder-esque films - never got a U.S.

Mixing the theatricality of commedia dell’arte with contemporary situations made for a punchy cocktail of laughs and heartbreak, and one of its maestri was Dino Risi (“Il Sorpasso,” “I Mostri”), perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated “Profumo di Donna” (remade as “Scent of a Woman”). So many great movies came out of Italy in the two decades after World War II that just a handful of last names - De Sica, Rossellini, Fellini, Visconti, Antonioni - instantly conjure the era’s might, from masterworks of heart-clutching humanism (“Bicycle Thieves,” “La Strada”) to dazzling style epics (“8 ½,” “L’Avventura”).īut right alongside them in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and a direct outgrowth of neorealism, were the commedia all’italiana hits - satires and sex comedies pointing a cracked mirror at Italy’s mores as they clashed with a newly vibrant capitalism and significant political change.

Little misfortune guide