We're back! "Il Sorpasso" by Dino Risi at the wonderful garden of Numismatic Museum of Athens

Director: Dino Risi
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Spaak, Claudio Gora
Duration: 105'

Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant are the odd couple who meet in the centre of Rome on the 15th of August and embark on a two-day road trip to sunkissed Lazio and the Tuscany coastline.Through Risi’s lens the trip serves as a sardonic introspective look at a country which has recently emerged from a tempestuous transitional period. In the middle of the scorching summer, the loquacious hero tries to lure an introverted law student over to the joys of an easy life. This parallels the period during which the Italian middle class is recovering from its post-war idleness and begins to give in to a lifestyle of overconsumption. In both cases, the transition occurs in a frivolous manner - Gassman’s speedy overtaking is a perfect analogy for a society which is so desperately trying to catch up with post-war developments that is has lost all measure.

Regarded as one one of the undisputed masterpieces of Italian cinema, Risi’s film takes on the form of commedia all’italiana and reaches perfection. He turns up the heat on all the side plots in order to uncover the prime elements in its centre: the instinct of the masses, simplified cinematic language, the approachable heroes and above all the tragicomedy of middle class existence. At the same time by presenting his self-centred hero as the ideal fascist, Risi focuses on the excessive immorality that has brought society to its current state. And so the persistent horn of the emblematic Lancia Aurelia sounds off not as a warning but as an alarm. Thodoris Karamanolis

“SOTTO LE STELLE” Tribute. In collaboration with the Italian Embassy and the Italian Culture Institute Athens