Those were good times when in Italy even the “Christmas movies” were masterpieces. On 22 December 1961, just two days after the release of Pietro Germi’s Italian Divorce, Dino Risi’s “Una vita difficile” also began its triumphal run in cinemas. Another era, another Italy, another impact of cinematographic art on the popular imagination and on the “public debate”. It was the era of the great masters, and of the great screenwriters able to truly grasp the tensions and contradictions of the present and transform them into profound reflections without losing the sense of reality and indeed finding the key to obtain the best possible answer even from the so-called ” paying public “. In this sense, Una vita difficile represents a fourfold exploit: that of producer Dino De Laurentiis; that of the prince screenwriter Rodolfo Sonego, the only author of a script that perhaps represents the apex of the long association with Alberto Sordi; that of Sordi himself, never so good again and here probably engaged in the most complex role of his career; and finally that of the never quite late Dino Risi, who after Il vedovo (1959), Il mattatore (1960) and the unfortunate but splendid A doors closed (1961) had entered the most intense moment of his long career (as confirmed by his films later in the five-year period: “little things” such as The march on Rome and Il sorpasso (both from 1962) and the epochal I mostri (1963).
December 23, 2021 | 15:47
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