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Presented by Cinecittá Holding and the Film Society of Lincoln Center,
with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.
Special thanks to Pupi Avati, Camilla Cormanni, Amelia Carpenito Antonucci
and the Cineteca Nazionale/Scuola Nazionale di Cinema.
The series was organized by Antonio Monda and Richard Peña.
A true treasure of the Italian cinema, Vittorio Gassman passed away in
June 2000, leaving behind an extraordinary career that spanned five
decades and several national cinemas. Born in 1922 in Genoa, of Austrian
and Italian parentage, Gassman started out in theater - to which he
would return throughout the years - before bursting to international
stardom as Walter opposite Silvana Mangano in BITTER RICE. With his
sturdy, somewhat aristocratic good looks, Gassman was an extraordinarily
seductive presence on screen, yet unlike his contemporary Marcello
Mastroianni there was always a hint of treachery in his wry half smile,
an asset that served him well in a number of films. After a brief
sojourn in Hollywood, Gassman returned to Italy, where soon after Mario
Monicelli cast him as an inept ex-boxer turned criminal in BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET; although he would continue to work in dramas throughout
the rest of his career, it was really his great success in a series of
wonderful comedies, notably those directed by Dino Risi, such as IL SORPASSO, that would keep him one of the most popular actors for the next
few decades.
This brief survey - he made well over 100 films - of Vittorio Gassman's
films is both a celebration of a wonderful career, and our way of saying
thanks.
- Antonio Monda and Richard Peña
IL SORPASSO aka THE EASY LIFE
Dino Risi, 1962; 105m
For many, Vittorio Gassman's best-loved performance was as Bruno
Cortona, the large-living, fast-talking huckster in Dino Risi's
hilarious road movie. Bruno meets Roberto (an impossibly young
Jean-Louis Trintignant), a shy student, and starts to give him a few
lessons on the way of the world while taking him on an extended tour of
the Roman countryside. Among the people they run across on their journey
is Lily (Catherine Spaak, only 17 at the time), who seems capable of
teaching both of them a thing or two. Risi brilliantly sends up both
masculine swagger and the Italian economic miracle of the late 50s, with
Gassman, as in so many of his best roles, projecting seemingly
contradictory qualities - here, boastfulness and vulnerability -
simultaneously.
Fri Feb 27: 6:30; Sat Feb 28: 4:15; Sun Feb 29: 6
SCENT OF A WOMAN / PROFUMO DI DONNA
Dino Risi, 1974; 103m
Remade in 1992 into an American film starring Al Pacino and Chris
O'Donnell, Dino Risi's original is a darker and in many ways richer
rendering of Giovanni Arpino's novel. Gassman stars as Capitan Fausto
Consolo, a blind military man who commandeers a young private
(Alessandro Momo) to accompany him on a week-long trip from Turin to
Naples. Unpleasant and aggressive, Fausto asks for no pity, and deserves
even less; he takes to needling his young charge, nicknaming him
"Cuccio" (Babyfat) and chewing up most people he encounters. Yet as the
days pass his young companion begins to sense that there's a hidden
purpose to this journey, and then he must decide how to deal with
Fausto's plan. Surely one of Gassman's greatest performances, his
incarnation of Fausto allows you to be both repulsed and fascinated by
his character, as he never lets you forget even in his worst moments the
core of pain that's come to define him.
Fri Feb 27: 8:45; Sat Feb 28: 6:30;
Sun Feb 29: 3:50
THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS / IL DESERTO DEI TARTARE
Valerio Zurlini, 1976; 143m
Numerous directors wanted to film this famous novel by Dino Buzzati,
among them Antonioni, Visconti, and David Lean. For what proved to be
his final film, Zurlini assembled a remarkable international cast,
including Gassman, Jacques Perrin, Fernando Rey, Max von Sydow,
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Francisco Rabal. The film follows a few tense
months in the life of a platoon assigned to protect Bastiano, a fortress
on the edge of the infamous "Desert of the Tartars." Four years earlier,
the Tartars had besieged the fort but had never been able to take it,
but now certain clues appear that indicate a new attack might be
imminent. Meanwhile, a mysterious ailment afflicts several of the
officers. Shooting in southeast Iran, Zurlini made spectacular use of
the landscapes, creating a world that seems so totally cut off from the
rest of civilization as to make the fort's very existence seem somewhat
absurd.
Sat Feb 28: 1:30; Sun Feb 29: 8:15
BRANCALEONE'S ARMY / L'ARMATA BRANCALEONE
Mario Monicelli, 1966; 117m
Mario Monicelli's great comic vision almost approaches farce in this
hilarious tale of an unlikely assortment of warriors off on a mission
during the Middle Ages. Gassman heads up this gang of misfits in a
journey across Italy to take possession of a grand estate. Speaking an
entirely made-up version of medieval Italian, our heroes plunge ever
deeper into monumental silliness, spoofing along the way just about
every convention of chivalric tradition. Gassman and Monicelli seem to
be having a ball playing with the actor's suave persona; the film also
features Gian Maria Volonté, Catherine Spaak and Barbara Steele.
Sat Feb 28: 8:45; Sun Feb 29: 1:30
WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH / C'ERAVAMO TANTO AMATI
Ettore Scola, Italy, 1974; 123m
Three men from decidedly different backgrounds forge a close friendship during the partisan struggles near the end of World War II: Antonio (Nino Mandfredi), a working-class militant; Nicola (Stefano Fatta Flores), an intellectual with a passion for movies; and Gianni (Gassman), a middle-class opportunist. They are also bound by their love for Luciana (Stefania Sandrelli); as the years pass and their friendship is tested and tried almost to the breaking point, Scola cleverly weaves a kind of parallel history of the Italian cinema into his story, tracing the lives of his protagonists through a series of classic moments in Italian films. The film is dedicated to Vittorio De Sica, who actually appears as himself and who died while the film was being completed.
Tue March 2: 3; Sat March 6: 1:30
Mon March 8: 6
CRY OF THE HUNTED
Joseph H. Lewis, U.S., 1953; 80m
One the lesser known of Gassman's Hollywood films, but one of the very best: Gassman plays Jory, an escaped convict who makes his getaway into the tangled swamplands of Louisiana. Hot on his trail is police lieutenant Tunner (Barry Fitzgerald), for whom Jory's capture increasingly becomes a personal obsession. Gassman's plays off his "foreignness" so that he always seems out of place in the crimnal world; both men in fact are sympathetic characters, who the film implies might have been friends under other circumstances, but fate has conspired otherwise. As in his earlier masterpiece Gun Crazy, Lewis carefully ratchets up the tension, intensifying his focus on the chase until it seems the whole world is merely a backdrop for the struggle between these two men.
Wed March 3: 4:30 & 8:40; Thurs March 4: 6:15
BITTER RICE / RISO AMARO
Giuseppe De Santis, Italy, 1949; 107m
BITTER RICE is that rare film that wound up making two of its featured players international stars: Silvana Mangano, whose steamy performance and torn nylons became a new benchmark for screen eroticism; and Vittorio Gassman, who as the sleazy, seductive petty crook Walter established a screen persona that would define him for years. On the run from the police, Gassman and his paramour Francesca (Doris Dowling) take off for the Po Valley, where they get involved with the annual rice harvest. In keeping with the neorealist spirit of the times, BITTER RICE powerfully details the exploitation of the mostly female fieldworkers, but the sense of physical passion and sexual tension can always be felt right below the surface.
Wed March 3: 6:15; Sun March 7: 3:45
This print of BITTER RICE has been made available to us for the Gassman series through the generosity of Cristaldi Films and the Cineteca Nazionale/Scuola Nazionale di Cinema.
The restoration of BITTER RICE was completed by the Cineteca Nazionale with the help of the Municipality of Vercelli.
A WEDDING
Robert Altman, U.S., 1978; 125m
Vittorio Gassman had not made a film in the U.S. for over 20 years when he received an offer to work with Robert Altman in A WEDDING. Already an admirer of the director's work (he claimed to have seen Nashville three times), Gassman accepted the part of Luigi Corelli, an Italian ex-waiter replete with mob connections who hit the jackpot by marrying into the wealthy Sloan family of Chicago. Now his own son is about to get married, and the occasion brings just about every ghost out of both families' respective closets. Just watching Altman orchestrate his 50-member cast in this pitch-black send-up of class and status in middle-America is a wonder; working as always with an extraordinary cast, Altman quickly defines each role, then sets it off to collide with all the others. Controversially received when first released, A WEDDING remains one of the purest examples of the inimitable Altman approach to cinema.
The print of A WEDDING is faded. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thurs March 4: 3:40 & 8
THE LONG WINTER / EL LARGO INVIERNO
Jaime Camino, Spain, 1991; 132m
Print courtesy of the Spanish Film Institute and Jaime Camino.
A polyglot who worked as an actor in several languages, Gassman made his Spanish cinema debut in this beautiful story of a Barcelona mansion, "The Mimosa House," and the family that inhabited it over long and difficult decades. Gassman plays Claudio, the Italian butler to the Casals family who serves as the sole witness to the stories of greed, sacrifice, courage and betrayal that will come to define family life. Two brothers, Casimiro and Jordi, cast their respective lots with the opposing sides during the Civil War; the fighting and its aftermath will redefine the family's position in the community as well as the relationships of the brothers to each other. From his vantage point Claudio sees what's happening on all sides, keeping his distance while occasionally making his own presence felt when he feels the very survival of the family itself is at stake. Co-starring with Vittorio Gassman are Jean Rochefort, Jacques Penot, Elizabeth Hurley and Adolfo Marsillach.
Fri March 5: 6:15; Mon March 8: 3:20
IN THE NAME OF THE ITALIAN PEOPLE
Dino Risi, Italy, 1971; 120m
Among the great masters of commedia all'italiana, Dino Risi is the one with whom Vittorio Gassman had the closest and the most collaborative relationship. Ten years after IL SORPASSO Gassman plays another scintillating anti-hero of the Italian boom, a rich and vulgar real estate developer suspected of the murder of a prostitute by the upright and ultra-moralist judge Bonifazi (the marvelous Ugo Tognazzi). The mean-spirited, witty script by Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli anticipates in many ways the mani pulite scandals of the early 90s, with its exemplary protagonists and their moral ambiguity that seems to mirror that of the entire country. Gassman is at his best with a new character that you love to hate, ending up as a victim of a scary and absurd poetic justice.
Fri March 5: 9; Mon March 8: 1 & 8:30
BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET / I SOLITI IGNOTI
Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1958; 105m
Print courtesy of Cristaldi Film in Rome.
Not much need be said about one of the great classics of Italian cinema, a hilarious satire of the heist film in which a group of would-be caper artists bungle every possible aspect of the "perfect crime." The cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Totò, Claudia Cardinale, Renato Salvatori, and of course Vittorio Gassman, as Peppe il Pantera, a former boxer who's been hit a bit too often and has now decided to become a criminal mastermind.
Sat March 6: 4:10; Sun March 7: 1:30
LIFE IS A BED OF ROSES / LA VIE EST UN ROMAN
Alain Resnais, France, 1983; 110m
Working with writer Jean Grualt (with whom he had collaborated earlier on Mon oncle d'Amerique, and who also worked with Truffaut and Rivette), Alain Resnais created this provocative look at the role of imagination in creating personal happiness. In the early 20th century, an eccentric count (opera star Ruggero Raimondi) creates a rococo pleasure palace, the Temple of Happiness, to which he invites the members of a select cult to help him build an ideal society; when WWI breaks out, the cult breaks apart. Seventy years later, the temple is now a site for special seminars and summer institutes. Prof. Walter Guanini (Gassman) holds forth there on his theories about achieving communal happiness, although he seems most interested in spending time with some of his female followers. Finally, a group of children imagine their own world, full of knights and dragons. Resnais and Grualt make each story double back and reflect on the others, seeming ultimately to be three approaches to the same question: How can we get our imaginations to work for us? Gassman has great fun with his role, embodying the seductive guru who just might believe his own theories.
Sat March 6: 6:30; Wed March 10: 1:30 & 6:15
LA FAMIGLIA
Ettore Scola, Italy, 1987; 125m
In the latter part of his career, Gassman formed a remarkable partnership with director Ettore Scola, appearing in nine of the director's films. Gassman's classical approach to acting, in which he formed a complete image of a character and then lived that part on screen - rather than simply performing it - must have appealed greatly to a director whose films so often completely immerse us into fictional worlds. LA FAMIGLIA is one of the greatest collaborations; tracing the life of a man, Carlo, over the course of eight decades, LA FAMIGLIA takes place largely in a single set, a large apartment that serves as a barometer for the changes occurring both inside and out. Playing Carlo as he reaches middle age, Gassman is the emotional center of the piece; it is through him that we can register the unfulfilled promises, the many disappointments, as well as the unexpected pleasures that make up Carlo's life. Andrea Occhipinti plays the younger Carlo, and Fanny Ardant and Stefania Sandrelli are the two women of his life.
Sat March 6: 8:45; Wed March 10: 3:45 & 8:30
WAR AND PEACE
King Vidor, U.S., 1956; 205m
One of the most expensive Hollywood productions of its time - in fact, it was a co-production, shot in Italy and featuring an international cast and crew - WAR AND PEACE features Gassman as the villainous Anatole Kuragin, the rake who sweeps Audrey Hepburn's Natasha temporarily off her feet and thereby ruins her chances for happiness with the much more deserving Andrei (Mel Ferrer). Gassman is at his Latin lover best, with the dangerous side of his sex appeal running full throttle. As might be expected, Vidor pares down the many storylines of Tolstoy's vast panoramic novel, yet he still manages to offer a moving and insightful portrait of Russia at the moment of the Napoleonic invasion. The film also features Henry Fonda, Anita Ekberg, John Mills and Herbert Lom as Napoleon.
Sun March 7: 6:15; Tue March 9: 1
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