Catania canal
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Catania canal |
| Original title | L'arte di arrangiarsi |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luigi Zampa |
| script |
Vitaliano Brancati Luigi Zampa |
| production | Gianni Hecht Lucari |
| music | Alessandro Cicognini |
| camera | Marco Scarpelli |
| cut | Eraldo Da Roma |
| occupation | |
| |
The Italian comedy film Kanaille von Catania was created in 1954 based on a script that Vitaliano Brancati wrote together with director Luigi Zampa . The original Italian title L'arte di arrangiarsi stands for the art of coping with adverse, changing living conditions, of staying afloat. As in his first major film roles, Alberto Sordi plays an evil, adaptive wise guy. But the early films with Sordi were limited to relationships between men and women and to the family, and in L'arte di arrangiarsi, politics became the focus for the first time. In the 1950s, political satires were a rarity in Italian cinema. In addition to the Don Camillo films, Zampa's film was one of the rare exceptions. He alluded to the ability of some politicians to adapt to the demands of different epochs of Italy in the 20th century.
action
Around 1910 in the Sicilian city of Catania . Sasa is secretary to his uncle, the conservative mayor. He falls in love with the socialist Lilli and because of her leaves his uncle's job and now works in the printing shop of a socialist newspaper. But Lilli still prefers Giardini, the leader of the socialists.
Sasa presents Giardini with documents from his uncle's office that show that several conservative politicians and officials have enriched themselves through corruption. Giardini publicly accuses the men, but Sasa burns the papers that Giardini tried to produce as evidence. Firstly, they would have incriminated him too, and secondly, he gets rid of the rival who ends up in prison for defamation. But this move doesn't get him any further with Lilli. He marries the stupid, fat Paola, daughter of the owner of the mills of Catania. When he was called up in 1915, after Italy entered the First World War , he successfully simulated and was declared incapacitated. After the war he is challenged to a duel by a Sicilian man of honor because of a woman's story . He writhes out of the confrontation by invoking a new law by the fascist government that forbids duels. He joins the fascists and is busy building a career with them. When, towards the end of the Second World War, fascism went under and the communists were very popular, it switched to their side in the hope of being able to save the possession of its mills. After the Christian Democrats prevailed in the post-war years and the church had a say again, he took their side. In order to get even richer with property speculation, he bribes an official in Rome. He was drawn there because of a young would-be actress who wants to make a film. He becomes a film producer and sets up a production that he finances with the money he had offered to move a tax evader abroad. This gets wind of it and reports Sasa. In his old age he loses everything and is dented. After his release, he survived as a street vendor of razor blades.
criticism
Jean A. Gili called the film an outflow of screenwriter Brancati's usual sarcastic pessimism. The external changeability of the main character bring his ideological Transformism expressed ". Sordi gives this shameful Italy his features and there are credible again by mixed listlessness with cynicism and servility to the dramatic awareness of Nottaufen in history" The Encyclopedia of international film said that the execution did not quite keep what the idea promised.
Web links
- Catalog of Catania in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Goffredo Fofi: Laughter in Italian . In: Filmkritik No. 8/1964, pp. 397–398
- ^ Rémi Fournier Lanzoni: Comedy Italian style . Continuum, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8264-1822-7 , p. 25
- ^ A b Jean A. Gili: La comédie italienne . Henri Veyrier, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-85199-309-7 , p. 98
- ↑ Kanaille of Catania. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .