Alessandro Blasetti


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7.1 Peccato Che Sia Una Canaglia/ Too Bad He's Bad (1959)
7.3 Quattro Passi Fra le Nuvole (1942)
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me. Alessandro Blasetti fu promotore del primo rinnovamento del cinema italiano, prima come critico e poi come regista.

Con Sole (1929) ruppe bruscamente con la tradizione mondana e aristocratica, di ascendenza tardo romantica e dannunziana, aprendo alla realta` sociale e alle novita` del cinema ....sovietico. Con Nerone (1930) inauguro` il film comico su misura (in questo caso per Petrolini). Con 1860 (1933) trasformo` la retorica imperiale dei Colossal storici in rievocazione realistica.

Con Un'Avventura di Salvator Rosa (1939) rinverdisce i fasti del film in costume e imposta i moduli del film d'avventura alla Zorro. Con La Corona di Ferro (1941) propose lo standard per i film sul mito, alla Maciste.

Il trittico sceneggiato da Zavattini e` il primo vero accenno di neorealismo. Quattro Passi fra le Nuvole (1942) e` la storia dell'incontro, su una corriera scalcagnata che arranca nella campagna, fra un commesso viaggiatore burbero e bonario e una ragazza incinta che non ha il coraggio di tornare a casa; dapprima l'uomo fingera` di essere il marito della sventurata, poi, smascherato, mettera` una buona parola a suo favore. E` in pratica It Happened One Night rivisto all'insegna della campagna italiana e pullulante di eventi quotidiani (case contadine, strade polverose, campi di grano, lavoratori, donne), portava sullo schermo il popolo con i suoi affanni e i suoi piccoli drammi.

Un Giorno Nella Vita (1946) e` la storia di un massacro compiuto dai tedeschi ai danni delle suore di un convento, colpevoli di aver nascosto un gruppo di partigiani; incrociata con l'idillio fallito di uno dei giovani con la superiora, questo film restava nel lembo del melodramma. Prima Comunione (1950) completo` la conversione del Blasetti al pacifismo.

La sua inesauribile voglia di sperimentare gli ispiro` Fabiola (1949), spettacolo imperiale anti - eroico e umanitario, il primo film ad episodi Altri Tempi (1952, rielaborazione di episodi ottocenteschi), la prima commedia all'italiana Peccato Che Sia Una Canaglia/ Too Bad He's Bad (1959), tipico idillio - bisticcio della screwball comedy,

Paolo (Marcello Mastroianni) is a humble, polite, honest and hard-working cab driver who keeps his car speckless. One day the sexy Lina (Sophia Loren) and two young men rent his taxi for the day to go to the beach. They ask him to make a brief stop at a car repair's shop. The two males get out and talk to a man, hinting that they are going to steal the car. At the beach Lina jumps in the sea and invites Paolo to come along. Paolo can't resist and flirts a bit with her. He mentions that he has lost his entire family in a bombing (he wears a ring that is his only memory of his relatives). Just when they are beginning to chat, the car's alarm goes off. Paolo runs to the car and catches the two kids trying to steal it. Furious, he beats them up, while Lina dresses up amused. She is still smiling but, after the kids have disappeared, his fury turns to her. He pushes her into the car, determined to bring her to the police station. She doesn't resist the "arrest" and actually makes fun of him. During the journey to the police station he doesn't stop at a cross street and is almost arrested by the traffic guards. In the meantime Lina walks away. Paolo returns to the house where they stop to inquire about the two kids who spoke with the mechanic. The mechanic is busy with a customer, the middle-aged Vittorio (Vittorio De Sica), who behaves like a business man but is actually a thief whose suitcase is broken (it's a special suitcase used to "swallow" other people's briefcases). As Paolo describes the attempted car theft, Vittorio comments that the thieves were amateurs and criticizes the young generation. However, he subtly convinces Paolo that it's not worth going to the police. Paolo is still bitter because his car has been damaged, and his boss will take the money out from his salary.
Ten days later Paolo sees Lina with one of the boys. He chases them and causes an accident, but captures Lina. A traffic guard thinks that Paolo is guilty of the accident, but Lina testifies in his favor. Nonetheless, Paolo is determined to bring her to justice. First he has to deliver a couple of foreign customers to their destination, and Lina surprises him by talking in English. She says that her father worked in England. The car now has two dents and Paolo wants her and the boys to pay. Later she tells him that the boy is her brother. Paolo demands to be taken to her father. Lina agrees. Paolo is surprised to see that Lina's father is Vittorio, still busy with his magic suitcases. Vittorio is puzzled by an item he found in one of the briefcases he stole. Alone with her father in the kitchen for a minute, Lina claims that Paolo is just a boy who likes her. In the other room Paolo investigates the mysterious object and is excited to discover that it's a recorder. Paolo is so pleased with Vittorio that he doesn't mention the reason he came. In the meantime the children who are playing outside steal the spare tyre of Paolo's car, but Lina, horrified, tells them to put it back. The moment Paolo leaves Lina's granma pulls out the wallet she just stole from him. Vittorio runs downstairs to return it to Paolo. Alone with Vittorio, Paolo tells him the truth about the attempted car theft. Vittorio pretends to be shocked and devastated at the news, but Lina gets really angry at Paolo and starts yelling at him until Paolo is so confused that he gives up and Vittorio is actually proud of her performance. He also learns that neither of Lina's accomplices is a brother of hers.
The following day she comes to the garage and meets the other cab drivers. All of them are fascinated by her and nobody understands why Paolo gets mad at her. In fact, eventually even Paolo gives in and takes her to the movies. She gives him a cigarette case with a romantic inscription. Paolo takes it as a declaration of love, but then finds out that she simply stole it from his own boss who is puzzled to see it in his hands. Paolo drives like a madman to the train station where Lina is seeing her father off. At the station he gives her a lecture on how a thief selects his best victims. He picks a wealthy woman, steals her bag with his magic suitcase, and walks outside. By sheer accident the first cab is Paolo's. Lina walks away, Vittorio jumps in the taxi and tells Paolo he's in a hurry. Paolo tries to have a conversation about the cigarette case but Vittorio is only interested in getting out of the station as soon as possible. While they chat, Paolo realizes that Vittorio's suitcase is open at the bottom to swallow other people's bags. Alas, in doing so he loses control of the car and causes another accident, while Vittorio can sneak out in the crowd.
This time Paolo ends up at the hospital and the car is completely wrecked. The other car is a diplomatic car by the Indian embassy. Lina asks her father to do something for Paolo. Vittorio puts together a little crowd of "witnesses" and heads for the Indian embassy. The ambassador listens to Vittorio's witnesses but then takes all the witnesses to the police and they all get arrested. When Paolo returns home from the hospital, Lina is there to promise that the car will be fixed at no cost to him. Initially he does not even want to see her, but then he cannot deny that he is in love with her. Just then the boss phones that Paolo can return to the garage and that the car is ready. Paolo believes Lina, although he's puzzled by her goodbye. As usual, he soon realizes that Lina has lied to him: the repairs have not been paid for, and the Indians want the money from him.
Lina has a plan, though, that she did not share with Paolo. She really means to repay him. She and her two accomplices are on their way to steal wallets on a bus. When Vittorio realizes what she wants to do for love, he volunteers to join the team. It is Vittorio who is about to steal a fat wallet from an obnoxious little man when... Paolo sees them and boards the bus, shouting "thief thief!" Vittorio and Lina manage to confuse the situation and by the time the little crowd reaches the police station it is no longer clear who is the thief. The police chief is so confused by Lina's statements and by Vittorio's sweet talk that he declares everybody innocent asking "who is the thief?" to imply that obviously none of them could be the thief while he is staring at Vittorio (the thief).
As soon as they walk outside, Paolo vents his anger at Lina: as usual, she got away with it and he's in trouble. He would like to slap her. A man stops him. Lina tells the stranger to mind his own business because Paolo is her husband and can do anything he likes to her. Paolo gets even more furious, puts his ring on her finger and slaps her in front of everybody. And then they kiss. Everybody stops to watch creating a traffic jam in the street.
il primo film inchiesta Europa di Notte (1959, sui locali notturni), tutti doppiati da almeno un altro film dello stesso genere secondo una brutta abitudine di questo regista audace e corrivo allo steso tempo.

Io Io Io e gli Altri (1966) infine e` il film - testamento di Blasetti, in cui si ritrovano la sua inestinguibile irrequietezza, l'umanitarismo un po' generico, e l'afflato popolare, che hanno influenzato in un modo o nell'altro le generazioni successive.

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