It's hard for thieves
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | It's hard for thieves |
| Original title | I soliti ignoti |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mario Monicelli |
| script |
Agenore Incrocci Furio Scarpelli Suso Cecchi D'Amico Mario Monicelli |
| production | Franco Cristaldi |
| music | Piero Umiliani |
| camera | Gianni Di Venanzo |
| cut | Adriana Novelli |
| occupation | |
| |
The classic Italian feature film Thieves have a hard time (original title: I soliti ignoti ) from 1958 is the first work to be assigned to the genre of Commedia all'italiana . The original title describes “the unknown perpetrators”, petty criminals from the lower class who, following the example of the French crime film Rififi (1955), want to save themselves from their predicament through a carefully planned break-in. The comedy goes hand in hand with the tragedy of trying to find a place in society. The script is based on an idea by the duo Age & Scarpelli , who developed it with Suso Cecchi D'Amico and the director Mario Monicelli . The film received the Nastro d'Argento for Best Screenplay and a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1959 Oscars . In 2002 , the subject was filmed again under the title Safecrackers or Diebe ist haben It's hard .
action
In a poor outskirts of Rome. The petty criminal Cosimo ends up in prison after a failed car theft. He has a hot tip for a big break-in, but because time is of the essence, he wants to hire a substitute to serve the three months in prison for him. His fiancée Norma is supposed to raise the money and his buddy Capanelle, who was involved in the theft of Schmiere, a volunteer. Young Mario needs money, but his mother would not accept this money acquisition. The Sicilian Ferribotte takes care of his sister Carmelina, so that no man approaches her. Tiberio, whose wife is imprisoned for cigarette smuggling and who has to stay with his baby, must also decline. Only the unsuccessful boxer Peppe takes on the job and reports as the culprit of the car theft.
Trying to deceive the judiciary puts both Cosimo and Peppe behind bars. There Cosimo Peppe tells about his idea of a break-in. The safe of a pawn shop that can be accessed through a thin wall in a neighboring apartment. Peppe comes out of custody and passes the idea on to the others. He, Tiberio, Ferribotte, Mario and Capanelle watch the pawnshop from a rooftop to film the employees opening the safe. When that doesn't help, they call Cruciani, a specialist in cracking a safe. For the planned break-in, they need tools that Mario procures from his former teachers. Norma is disappointed with Cosimo and replaces him with Peppe. Mario, in turn, meets Carmelina, vies for her, and she lets him into her apartment, unseen by Ferribotte. Old women live in the pawnshop's apartment next door, with whom young Nicoletta works as a housemaid. The gang would like to use them to somehow get into the apartment, but Peppe falls in love with Nicoletta. Cosimo gets out of jail with a release from prison and demands his share of the hoped-for profit. But the others turn him away, so he steals a handbag and is run over by a tram.
Cruciani trains the gang, but doesn't take part in the break-in itself. Mario also gets out and finds a regular job, whereupon Ferribotte accepts him as a husband for Carmelina. Finally, Peppe, Tiberio, Ferribotte and Capanelle try to get through a coal cellar and over the roofs to the apartment. After piercing a wall in the apartment, it turns out that the space behind it is the apartment's kitchen and not the pawnshop. They eat, leave the apartment in the morning and disperse. While hiding from a police patrol, Peppe gets caught in a crowd of workers and is forced to work.
Contemporary reviews
In the film service it was said that the actors nuanced "often to a delicate crook chamber play". "Refined optical expositions" made up for "some lengths and slapstick scenes". “What is most sympathetic about this cheerful film fun, however, is the indirect exposure of the speculative gangster film schema.” In the film review , Enno Patalas pointed out that Italian comedies are seldom distinguished by level and rather offer loudness and turbulence instead of wit and ingenuity. Thieves have a hard time , however, is a film that benefits from the experienced Suso Cecchi D'Amico, “a director and, last but not least, a photograph that even a serious, realistic film need not be ashamed of.” The actors, “Italy's first guard”, did without on exaggerated gestures. This comedy amounts to “a combination of the serious with the comic, the bitter with the cheerful, or more correctly: to allow the other to shine through in the one, without letting anything go.” The desolation of the living environment of its protagonists has “no film of 'Serious' neorealists are drawn more forcefully ”, and yet the film is“ as funny as it has been for a long time ”. Der Spiegel judged that with a “considerable joke” the comedy conveyed the “ironic insight that the 'big things' in life are never shot by little amateurs.” Even the Protestant film observer is not stingy with praise: “Five Italian small town thieves in a brilliantly cast Rififi parody, full of original ideas and nice surprises. To be recommended as amusing entertainment. "
Web links
- Collinwood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The film at comingsoon.it