Sorpasso

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer of 1962. They will spend two days together, meet both Roberto's and Bruno's family. The time Roberto spends with Bruno is a hilarious, but sometimes…

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer of 1962. They will spend two days together, meet both Roberto's and Bruno's family. The time Roberto spends with Bruno is a hilarious, but sometimes emotionally merciless accelerated maturization process. While Bruno's easy going "l'usage du monde" and societal success attract Roberto's great admiration, he also slowly realizes Bruno's hollowness, superficiality and unhappiness.

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer of 1962. They will spend two days together, meet both Roberto's and Bruno's family. The time Roberto spends with Bruno is a hilarious, but sometimes emotionally merciless accelerated maturization process. While Bruno's easy going "l'usage du monde" and societal success attract Roberto's great admiration, he also slowly realizes Bruno's hollowness, superficiality and unhappiness.

THE GAUCHO was made two years after Vittorio Gassman's collaboration with Dino Risi in IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE), perhaps their best of many films together. Although not as strong as the earlier film, this is a movie of substantial merit and deserves to be much better known. Gassman plays Mario Ravicchio, a financially-strapped press agent who accompanies an Italian production company on its trip to Buenos Aires to present a film at a festival there. He spends much of his time, when not seducing women, trying to accumulate some money, whether by gambling or attempting to finagle capital from expatriate Italian Marucchelli (Amedeo Nazzari), now a rich industrialist in Argentina. He gets friendship, nice words, but no money. Mario tries to tap another former friend from Rome, Stefano, but the guy turns out to be more impoverished than he is. The man is played by comic actor Nino Manfredi (of BREAD AND CHOCOLATE fame) in a short but magnificently acted supporting role as a down-and-out emigrant who has given up hope of success. The first encounter between Manfredi and Gassman with the exuberant exchange of affection between old friends is a treasure to behold. Italian actress Silvana Pampanini does a nice turn as an over-the-hills actress trying to marry a well-off Argentine who has been courting her for some time. Mario returns to Italy disillusioned but not without that saving `gioia di vivere' that characterizes him throughout this likable film with its many little rewards for the viewer. Ettore Scola, who later directed Gassman in DOWN AND DIRTY, lent his hand to the screenplay.

Catherine Spaak (Il Sorpasso/The Easy Life, Le Treu/The Night Watch) stars as a young woman who is convinced to vacation on a tropical island with a couple of young and eager men (Jacques Perrin and Fabrizio Capuci). While she enjoys her time in paradise, they each attempt to win her affection. Unable to decide between them, she eventually chooses an older fellow (Gabrele Ferzetti. Tragedy soon follows, prompting the young woman to go off on her own. Spaak sings Non e M'eute during titles as the talented and prolific Carlo Rustichelli provides the film's score.