Last night I watched this movie for the first time and I just loved it. It was very funny and had a very light tone.
The ending was a little jarring though, I'm still torn about it. It kinda seemed out of place for a comedy like this. I'm not saying I didn't like it, but it was certainly shocking. Any thoughts?
The whole time I was watching the movie I was really torn about this being a "comedy" and wondering if I was supposed to even like the character Bruno. He put down everyone he saw (country folk, poor people, blacks,....)and was a moocher and a liar (particularly when we walk in on him twisting around Roberto's story about Valeri to his relatives in the kitchen before they leave his uncle's house). He didn't care about anyone's feelings, was rude, immature, and left hurt people behind everywhere he went! Yet all along you find yourself like Roberto frustrated with him but liking him, rooting for him, and sometimes he'd say something that would make you feel sympathy for him.
Which is my way of saying, the ending didn't shock me, I found the life he was living deprressing, and the movie to me seemed to be using the light-heartedness to actually study a serious topic. I was smiling but not feeling like I was watching a comedy, it was all dark to me. And I thought the ending was foreshadowed quite a bit.
In the end my interpretation was that the irresponsible life is not the life to lead, that although he had 'fun' everywhere he went he was alone and his life was meaningless. Then he takes this innocent out, seduces him into that lifestyle for a bit, and ends up killing him. Actually a realistic ending for those kind of people, every day people are killed in car accidents by drunks, etc.
I'm not sure if that's what the director intended, and if I was laying a modern mindset over the film, but that's what it was like to me. And when he started racing on those cliffs that late in the film, I knew what was coming,
Reminded me of "Sugarland Express", "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," and of course "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Butch Cassidy...."
Which is my way of saying, the ending didn't shock me, I found the life he was living deprressing, and the movie to me seemed to be using the light-heartedness to actually study a serious topic. I was smiling but not feeling like I was watching a comedy, it was all dark to me.
@stockmalky: I really was disgusted by Bruno, a sociopath and typical "furbo," a wheeler-dealer, sincere on the surface, the archetypical charming, disarming con man who enters your life, makes you feel special then speeds off in his reckless vehicle, playing with life and death, always winding up unharmed while leaving others in the lurch. Particularly poignant was the interaction with Roberto's spinster aunt--he puts make-up on her eyes, loosens her hair, makes her feel special and then leaves abruptly. His warm and congenial interplay with Roberto's relatives was just a facade as he tells Roberto how bored he was during the visit. Every time that Bruno performed the crazy "passing" (in Italian, "sorpasso" means "passing," in the sense of passing other vehicles and can also mean "fast lane") scenes, I kept thinking that he would eventually wind up in a collision. I was just waiting for that fatal event. The end was tragic for that poor wimpy Roberto but not at all surprising. Bruno would go off and find other dupes to charm, as do all sociopaths.
shareBruno, a sociopath and typical "furbo," a wheeler-dealer, sincere on the surface,
I too found the ending shocking but felt just a few minutes before that it was headed that way. I have mixed feelings about it though.
shareI too 'knew' what was coming ...but I thought that it was going to be both or at the least Vittorio, for all his playful, domineering personality coming to the eventual end. This seems to be typical of some European movies, particularly French and Italian comedies...funny as they are, they always seem to enter sombre depressing endings messages. I preferred this movie the latter half of it more than the beginning with that noisy car horn. The moment they stepped into his ex wife home and those beautiful girls..and the twist. Certainly was the rage in the '60's.
shareThe ending was so cheesy and predictable, like much of the film, which is horribly overrated and I normally love Italian films from the 60s. The only thing jarring about the ending was how badly it was edited. It felt like a cheesy TV show from the 50s/60s.
Just watched this for the first time and consider it amoungst the 20 best films I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Must say I hated the ending though. It didn't spoil my pleasure for the film, I'm just going to imagine the last few minutes didn't happen! Did not fit in with the whole feel good vibe of the rest of the film.
sharemrbens I agree that the ending was very disappointing. Poor Roberto. He was enjoying a respite from his studies and what happens--he dies in a horrible crash just as he was beginning to feel the wildness of la dolce vita. I wonder how Bruno would have reacted to Roberto's death. Would the episode have sobered him or would he just go on his merry way?
shareI do not know if it would sober him up or not. However, I actually wondered something different about that sociopath. Was he more sad for Roberto or his car? To be honest, I could not answer that question with any assurance.
shareI agree with you. I saw it years and years ago on TV when I was a kid, and I never forgot it. I was quite taken by the irony and shock of the ending. No, I didn't see it coming. I saw it as Roberto finally learning to live life fully - not necessarily as foolishly as Bruno but with some joie de vivre - and then, boom... and I don't see Bruno as sociopathic at all, but rather quite affected by what happens. It had to end that way to make the film about something rather than just a strange buddy road pic.
shareMust say I hated the ending though. It didn't spoil my pleasure for the film, I'm just going to imagine the last few minutes didn't happen!
Repressed Roberto was unhappy in his life and most of the movie when not with Bruno but at the end when he finally embraces Bruno's lifestyle he's killed shortly after. So is the message that a person needs to live a life somewhere in-between? To seize life and not wait but at the same time make plans for your future and be thankful for what you have?
shareRisi's intent was to make a statement about the easy life that resulted from the boom economy that was occurring in Italy at the time. Many of the older folks who had endured tough times after WWII looked negatively upon the frivolous lifestyles that were developing. Risi merely intended to make a point that embracing that frivolous lifestyle could come with a price.
There was a lot of concern that the film would flop because of the ending. The filmmakers were very pleasantly surprised when it became an overnight hit. Italian filmgoers loved it, and it soon became a big success around the world.
If you like this movie, you should definitely purchase the Criterion release. It has a lot of good extras on it, including interviews with Risi.
Thanks eapfan69! I'll have to go check out the Criterion version after work. I don't like particularly like the ending but it didn't kill my enjoyment of the overall movie, which is is unusal for me as there have been many pretty good movies that I've disliked because of their endings.
shareHave fun, don't just sit there putting everything under the microscope.. there's fun to be had in life and you do your best to grab every single one of them cause you never know when you might meet a lunatic one day and drive you off a cliff. That's it to me, Robe was the character I immediately identified with, it all depends to you but it wasn't certainly out of place. This is a very intricate film masking as a comedy, probably one of the greatest character studies ever put to film in my opinion.
shareClassic Italian films are like this. They usually have a bittersweet ending to them when you least expect them.
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