Cinema
Thursday, February 01, 2007 - Thursday, March 29, 2007
9 FILMS WITH ALBERTO SORDI SCREENED AT THE COLUMBUS CENTRE FROM FEBRUARY 1 TO MARCH 29, 2007
The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, in collaboration with the Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana/Columbus Centre, directed by Alberto di Giovanni is pleased to present a film retrospective dedicated to one of the most important actors in the history of Italian cinema.
February 1 - March 29, 2007
Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana - Columbus Centre - 901 Lawrence Avenue West, Toronto
Free admission
PROGRAMME
Thursday, February 1
L’arte di arrangiarsi
Director: Luigi Zampa
Year: 1954. .
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Franco Coop, Marco Guglielmi, Armenia Balducci.
Runtime: 82 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: Sicilian Rosario Scimoni, also known as “Sasà”, from 1912 to 1953 changes his political belief and switches parties, for his personal interest. Once jailed, he will face the ultimate change.
Thursday, February 8
La Grande Guerra
Director: Mario Monicelli
Year: 1959
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano, Folco Lulli, Bernard Blier
Runtime: 137 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: Wearing a military uniform with weak beliefs, the Roman Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca, from Lombardia, sail through the events of the first world war with opportunism and dread. Once captured by the Austrian Army, they will face death with dignity and courage.
Thursday, February 15
Tutti a casa
Director: Luigi Comencini
Year: 1960
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Serge Reggiani, Edoardo De Filippo, Carla Gravina, Martin Balsam.
Runtime: 117 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - no subtitles
Plot Outline: After the political turnover of September 8, 1943 in Italy, a lieutenant dismisses his squad (brigade), and sends all the soldiers back home, not having received any clear order from the general Command of the Italian Army. On his journey back home, from north to south of the peninsula scourged by war, he experiences a change in his beliefs which will foster his personality.
Thursday, February 22
Il vigile
Director: Luigi Zampa
Year: 1960
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Mara Berni, Nando Bruno, Vittorio De Sica.
Runtime: 100 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: Based on a true story: Otello, a modest, unemployed fellow, gets hired as traffic officer. In order to survive, he will have to learn that law and regulations, in life as well on as the streets, are not really equally applied to everybody.
Thursday, March 1
Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l’amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa?
Director: Ettore Scola
Year: 1968
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Bernard Blier, Franca Bettoja, Giuliana Lojodice, Nino Manfredi.
Runtime: 122 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: A rich businessman, fed up with work, family, society, decides to embark on a trip to Africa with his loyal accountant, in search of another friend who had vanished there under mysterious circumstances. They will find him alright - as a tribal chief, surrounded with lots of topless, shapely wives. They are going to return to civilisation, but will their friend agree on going back with them ?
Thursday, March 8
Nell’anno del Signore
Director: Luigi Magni
Year: 1969
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Nino Manfredi, Enrico Maria Salerno, Claudia Cardinale.
Runtime: 117 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - no subtitles
Plot Outline: Rome, year 1825: during the pontificate of Leone XII, cardinals and vigilantes persecute innocents, and execute revolutionaries with guillotines.
Thursday, March 15
Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata
Director: Luigi Zampa
Year: 1972
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Claudia Cardinale, Angelo Infanti, Riccardo Garrone
Runtime: 110 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: A middle-aged immigrant, not exactly in good shape and handsome, looks for a mail order bride; while he lies about his appearance (using the picture of a better looking fellow), he’ll get a response from a young Italian girl, an immigrant herself, who’s looking to settle down with a rich and handsome man, hiding her past experiences as a prostitute.
Thursday, March 22
Polvere di stelle
Director: Alberto Sordi
Year: 1973
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Monica Vitti, Edoardo Faieta, Wanda Osiris, John Phillip Law.
Runtime: 123 min.
Rating: PG. – in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: Mimmo Adami and Dea Dani are a couple, in the entertainment business, not very talented, yet honest, touring Italy for work, during the years 1939-1945. In 1943 they reach Bari, where, in the famous theatre Petruzzelli, they will gain an unexpected yet fleeting fame.
Thursday, March 29
Un borghese piccolo piccolo
Director: Mario Monicelli.
Year: 1977
Cast: Alberto Sordi , Shelley Winters, Vincenzo Crocitti, Renzo Carboni.
Runtime: 117 min.
Rating: 14+.– in Italian - subtitled in Italian
Plot Outline: When his only son is killed in an armed robbery, a meek middle-aged man takes justice in his own hands.
Alberto Sordi (Rome, June 15, 1920 – Rome, February 25, 2003) was a beloved Italian actor, director and screenwriter. Together with Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Nino Manfredi and Vittorio Gassman, he was one of the most important figures of Italian comedy, as well as the ambassador of Roman culture in Italian cinema. In a career that spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and drama. Early roles included Fellini’s The White Sheik in 1952, and I Vitelloni (1953), a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak, effeminate immature loafer, as well as a starring role in Lo Scapolo (The Bachelor), playing a single man trying to find love. In 1959 he appeared in Monicelli's The Great War, considered by many critics and film historians to be one of the best Italian comedies. The Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Il Diavolo (1963). Sordi acted alongside Britain’s David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies and in 1965 he was in another highly regarded comedy, I Complessi (Complexes). Sordi also succeeded in dramatic roles, most notably in 1977's Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo (An Average Little Man) in which he portrays a man whose son is killed in an armed robbery and sets out to exact revenge. In 1984, he directed and conscripted Tutti Dentro, (Everybody in Jail), in which he played a magistrate who had warrants for corruption served on ministers and businessmen. Alberto Sordi was really masterful in two broad roles: one being the one of the underdog, struggling against injustices and prevarications, the other that of the prevaricator himself. One has only to watch his performances as the returning emigrant unjustly convicted in Detenuto in attesa di giudizio (Why), or the miserly sub-proletarian teased by the old millionaire Bette Davis into endless card games where he hopes to find release from his poverty to appreciate his skills in the first role, while the rampant, negligent doctor he plays in Il medico della mutua (Be Sick, It’s Free) is the perfect example of his aptness at rendering characters who were both truly despicable and completely believable.
(Aggiornato il 26 gennaio 2007)
Information
Date: Thursday, February 01, 2007 - Thursday, March 29, 2007
Times: 7:00pm
Venue: Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana - Columbus Centre - 901 Lawernce Avenue West, Toronto
Presented by: Istituto Italiano di Cultura
In collaboration with: Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana - Columbus Centre
Free admission
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