The master crook

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Movie
German title The master crook
Original title Il mattatore
Country of production Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 1960
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Dino Risi
script Ruggero Maccari
Ettore Scola
Sandro Continenza
production Mario Cecchi Gori
music Pippo Barzizza
camera Massimo Dallamano
cut Eraldo Da Roma
occupation

The Italian film comedy Der Meistergauner (original title: Il mattatore ) was made in 1960 under the direction of Dino Risi . The screenplay was written by Ruggero Maccari , Ettore Scola and Sandro Continenza , based on a story by Age & Scarpelli and Sergio Pugliese . The title character in this Commedia all'italiana plays Vittorio Gassman , who takes on numerous roles within the story.

action

A stranger rings the doorbell of Gerardo and his wife Annalisa, who tries to cheat them by selling a silver statue. Gerardo blows him up; he knows the tricks of fraudsters and trick thieves and tells the man his life story: once he eke out a poor existence as a stage comedian who was whistled out by the audience. His fiancée Annalisa, a revue dancer in the same pub, was upset about the living conditions. Gerardo let himself be hired by crooks as an impersonator in a coup, was set up and ended up in jail. There he soon received the nickname “The Artist” because the inmates enjoyed his acting. The pathetic performances were of poor quality, but the audience “couldn't run away”. Dismissed after four months, he becomes active as a cheater and slips into various roles by means of disguise and disguise.

First, Gerardo and Chinotto, a friend from prison, carry out minor thefts, for example from shoes or Christmas collections. After perfecting his methods, he turns to jewelers as preferred victims. Filou gives Annalisa a stolen ring, who urges him to marry and start a family, but who is unwilling to tolerate a continuation of his criminal career. Gerardo is very careful not to let her take his freedom from him. With a demonstration of destructive clumsiness, he thwarted Annalisa's attempt to find him an honest job. She leaves him and starts a relationship with an accountant. Gerardo buys a car and moves the main focus of her activities to Milan. There he meets Cortina, one of the crooks he was sitting for. Cortina is carrying out scams with his daughter Elena today. Gerardo not only deprives him of the booty, he also recruits Elena as an employee, who also becomes his bed mate. He ends his collaboration with Chinotto. The new team stole furs worth 6 million lire. Then it gets a jeweler to bring an as yet unpaid, precious necklace to a church marriage and to deposit it with the pastor. Of course, the pastor, the best man and the bride and groom, who act as Gerardo and Elena, are provided.

Gerardo's heart is still attached to Annalisa, whom he hopes to win back with an expensive fur coat. Because the accountant is not the real thing for her, she accepts the gift. Meanwhile, Gerardo and Elena carry out a coup in which they receive 5 million euros and jewelry from the pasta manufacturer Rebuschini for the promise of a major order from the army. Gerardo takes turns playing General Mesci and a telephone technician. His ingenuity goes so far as to fake Greta Garbo's stay on a beach for some paparazzi , whom he plays himself, and cash in on the tip, but the jealous Annalisa messes up his appearance. Elena turns away from him, for which Annalisa is ready to work as his accomplice. With Chinotto's help, she arranges another alleged trick theft, in which a jeweler is to be tricked into depositing a necklace with the priest. Except that this time the pastor and the wedding are real and Gerardo the fooled: Now he's married to me Annalisa. With this, Gerardo ends the story of his criminal career. The alleged con artist now reveals himself to be a police superintendent, arrests him and leads him away. As soon as they have left the house, the superintendent turns out to be an accomplice of Gerardo, who is taking a break from married life. They set off for London, where they use a trick to seize the crown jewels.

A landmark in Italian comedy film

The master thief was the first collaboration between Dino Risi and Vittorio Gassman, who made 15 films together. Gassman had already made a name for himself on television as a metamorphosis expert in the years before. In the master thief , he actually demonstrates his comic skills in a one-man show. Not counting the basic role as Gerardo, he assumes 16 identities. His Gerardo uses a different Italian dialect depending on the identity he constructs in the event of a fraud . This emphasizes Gerardo's virtuosity and makes it clear once again that the character is an actor. In the scene in which he recites from Shakespeare's drama Julius Caesar in prison , he parodies his own work as a serious stage actor. Risi captured the subtle irony in the behavior of melodramatic characters in the master thief . With this figure drawing and the episodic dramaturgy he created a style that was groundbreaking for the Commedia all'italiana in the years to come. The formula he tried out was used in many successful comedies, and he himself further perfected it in his films, Verliebt im Schärpfverbindungen (1962) and I mostri (1963), among others .

The production brought in 571 million lire. Contemporary Italian critics valued the film's more sophisticated, subtle humor rather than the widespread grotesque comedy, and admired Gassman's versatility. The filmdienst noted in 1962 that the film on the captivating "grandeur of Trickery" a concern sympathetic view. However, this should not be taken seriously: "It is a story made up for amusement, played with Italian weightlessness and without psychological abysses." Vittorio Gassman proves his acting versatility. In 1978, Positif discussed the master thief as a "rediscovery" that was less a satire than a farce. The narrative structure is simple and powerful at the same time, and Gassman plays with amazing ease. Jean Tulard (2005) described the comedy as amusing and highlighted the number of Gassman's metamorphoses.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Gérard Legrand: Bravo l'artiste (Le matamore) , in: Positif , October 1978, pp. 60-61
  2. ↑ a b c Paolo D'Agostini: Dino Risi . Editrice Il Castoro, Milan 1995, ISBN 88-8033-031-4 , pp. 42-43
  3. ^ A b Rémi Fournier Lanzoni: Comedy Italian style . Continuum, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8264-1822-7 , pp. 34-35
  4. ^ Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film . Volume II. Tutti i film italiani dal 1945 al 1959 . Gremese Editore, Rome 2007, ISBN 978-88-8440-450-3 , p. 262
  5. ↑ film-dienst No. 27/1962, drawn by "Ö"
  6. ↑ Jean Tulard in: Jean Tulard (Ed.): Guide des films . Laffont, Paris 2005, Volume 2, F-O, 2-221-10452-8, p. 1569