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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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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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