ALBERTO SORDI previously at Film Forum in New York City

Kicked out of drama school, Alberto Sordi (1920-2003), or “Albertone” as he was affectionately nicknamed by his public, first became famous as the Italian voice of Oliver Hardy. From starring roles in two early Fellinis, he went on to become one of the greatest and most beloved stars of the great period of commedia all’ italiana, often portraying the lazy, whining mama’s boy/ladykiller wannabe who still managed to suck up to priest and boss, but capable of dominating performances in the tragic style as well. In many ways he was the Italian Everyman and, even more than Mastroianni or Gassman, the most representative male star of Italy’s movie golden age. As Phillip Lopate wrote recently, “No one better embodied the ‘average Italian’ in all his swagger, cowardice, hypocritical geniality, and reluctant nobility.”

(1953, Federico Fellini) Five layabouts in a sleepy seaside town in winter: skirtchaser Franco Fabrizi is forced into marriage; would-be poet Leopoldo Trieste is propositioned by an aging ham actor; the director’s lookalike brother, Riccardo, croons at a seaside beauty pageant; and buffoon Sordi, costumed as a woman for a masked ball, begs his sister not to leave. Only the youngest, Fellini alter ego Moraldo (Shoeshine’s Franco Interlenghi), will get out. Winner, Silver Lion, Venice, and inspiration for countless movies, including American Graffitti and Mean Streets. Approx. 103 min.

“It could be said that much of American cinema, at least in the last 30 years or so, comes out of I VITELLONI...Without Fellini’s sweet, lyrical story of a group of young men drifting aimlessly toward 30, we would probably not have American Graffiti or Mean Streets or Diner... It shows all of Fellini’s unrivaled virtues — his lyrical sense of place, his abiding affection for even the most hapless of his characters, his effortless knack for limpid, bustling composition.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Captures the bittersweet emotions of a moment that eventually comes for everyone:
the moment you realize you can either grow up, or stay forever a child.”
– Martin Scorsese

“Sordi's riff on great yearning disguised as great appetites is the best thing about Fellini's all-the-young-dudes retrospective.”
–L Magazine

“Fellini observes the farce of their lives without condescension; his tone is satirical, yet warm and accepting—
the distinctive Fellini tone, in his first fully confident piece of direction.”
– Pauline Kael

(1951, Federico Fellini) Leopoldo Trieste’s honeymoon is interrupted when bride Brunella Bova seeks out her idol: the Valentinoesque star of fumetti (photo comic books), a still-chubby Sordi’s star-making role. Co-scripted by Michelangelo Antonioni, with a memorable cameo by Fellini’s wife Giulietta Masina as a friendly neighborhood streetwalker...Cabiria. Approx. 86 min.

“Fellini was already the maestro of his trademark pathos-tinged gaiety.
Boasts a free and fresh spirit that recalls classic silent comedy... Sordi is splendid!”
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker

“A delightful, extremely resonant comedy on the power of movies!” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“The most gentle and naturalistic of Fellini’s films, with Sordi in a marvelous performance.” – Pauline Kael

“A delightful satirical comedy… Agreeably abrasive in its attitude to illusions and the self-delusions that fuel them. Vitriolically funny!.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

(1962, Alberto Lattuada) Joyous, raucous Sicilian homecoming for Sordi’s Nino Badalamenti, stuffing himself, lapsing into dialect, and embracing an endless line of relatives, as his golden-haired Northern wife gets an overdose of culture shock. But then local capo Don Vincenzo wants him to go on a “hunting trip.” Dizzying spin from hilarious farce to sweaty-palmed Film Noir. “Almost a film festival unto itself.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times. Approx. 105 min.

“AN UTTER BLAST! At once a giddy mixture of farce, satire and opera buffa and a closely observed drama of social dislocation and cultural confusion.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Admirers of the Corleones or Tony Soprano will revel!” – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
“Sordi brings a heartiness to the role that pulls the movie along without a hitch, a clown with leading man looks, and both attributes serve him well here. It's a marvelous performance in a marvelous movie, one that sneaks up on you while you're watching it.”
– Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor

“UNLIKE ANY OTHER MOBBED-UP AFFAIR EVER FILMED. THIS IS ESSENTIAL VIEWING FOR CINEPHILES. So much came from it, yet so few know it. And Sordi, with his big, soulful eyes and farceur's zest delivers a performance of unusually subtle coloration, owing a little something to the Sicilian comedies of Pirandello, a little something to Fellini and a lot to Lattuada.”
– Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

“A LONG LOST GEM!. You won’t forget it and you won’t be seeing another movie like it… One of Sordi’s great gifts, to simultaneously play comedy and drama with both naturalness and grace, is essential to Mafioso's success.”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

(1972, Luigi Comencini) Every year, aging American moneybags Bette Davis, with old beau Joseph Cotten in tow, travels to Rome to play endless games of scopone — games so compulsive she shrugs off a heart attack to stay at the table — with nervous Sordi and formidable Silvano Mangano, a local couple so poor she has to stake them with a million lire. A parable of capitalism versus the people? But arguably the funniest card marathon in cinema history. Approx. 94 min.

“Recommended! Bette Davis groupies won’t want to miss this rare presentation of one of her last great turns.
The rest of the cast—Cotten and the astounding Sordi—certainly hold their own.”
– Time Out New York

"A scathing parable of the abyss between rich and poor that cannot be breached."
– Pacific Film Archive

(1959, Mario Monicelli) On the Austrian front in World War I, Roman professional thief Vittorio Gassman and bumbling Northern barber’s assistant Sordi set goldbricking records while avoiding — the spectacularly staged — combat at all costs, and contending with fiery pickpocket Silvana Mangano. Monicelli “makes the transition from farce to tragedy with skill unprecedented” (Vernon Young). Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival. Approx. 137 min.

“A skillfull mix of black humor… a superbly directed war film. Comic gags abound and are fashioned in order to create a grotesque vision of the war’s absurdity. Italy’s most disastrous military defeat is inserted into an irreverent comic framework.”
– Peter Bondanella

“Comedy at its most sophisticated: comedy as tragedy. Surprisingly funny, under the circumstances—for Monicelli and scriptwriters Age and Scarpelli succeed in creating at atmosphere in which the debacle of war is vividly evoked—but the final irony of their situation is almost unbearable.”
– Pacific Film Archive

(1960, Luigi Comencini) 1943: Marshal Badoglio surrenders to the Allies, as Lieutenant Sordi’s platoon dissolves around him, taking the title command to heart. But it’s a long way back for the comedy great himself. Stark realism alternates with Sordian farce, topped by a final bitter twist. Approx. 120 min.

“EXCEPTIONAL! The part is played flawlessly by Sordi… There is something pleasantly old-fashioned about this film, Comenicini appears to be saying ‘Sit down for a while and let me tell you about some Italians’; but beneath his seeming casualness, he is making every moment count, is giving ever scene its point. STARTLINGLY CANDID, WRY AND AFFECTING.”
– Stanley Kauffmann

"Recreates a seesaw of humor and horror with dizzying alternations." – Pacific Film Archive
A HERO OF OUR TIMES

(1955, Mario Monicelli) Terminally timid Albertone lives with his aunt and an elderly housekeeper, but he’s just waiting for a-little-bit-too-young Giovanna Ralli to have that next birthday before making his move; only trouble is, his boss Franca Valeri has eyes only for him. From the director of Big Deal on Madonna Street, with Mafioso director Alberto Lattuada as “the director.” Approx. 85 min.

"Dino Risi left a career in psychiatry to enter films in 1946. There is a touch of Billy Wilder in Risi's world, where mediocrity is the norm and terminal nerds are held in contempt only occasionally contaminated by compassion. His protagonists are nearly always males, latter-day Vitelloni...."
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

(1961, Dino Risi) Quixotic idealist Sordi finds integrity gets him nowhere, as it lands him in the pen and blows up his marriage with Lea Massari (L’Avventura) — will he eschew conscience and just go for the lira? Ambitious comic saga of the postwar years, with cameos by Vittorio Gassman and Silvana Mangano and comic highlight the Banquet from Hell. Approx. 118 min.

(1959, Dino Risi) Bad enough that wheeler dealer wannabe Sordi’s schemes usually go nowhere; but, to his humiliation, wife Franca Valeri has no problems of her own with money. Oh well, in between browbeating his overbearing wartime superior, now his cringing assistant, he can always make up with her and get a handout, while fantasizing about murdering his way to wealthy widowerhood. But what if...? Approx. 100 min.


	co-presented by 41 PARALLELO with MIBAC DG CINEMA and the support of CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA-CINETECA NAZIONALE