The movie is built around Troisi's talent (and here and there this is noticeable) but some scenes ought to the history of italian comedy and have entered into common language. Even if it's 40 years old - another historical period, another reality - its vis comica is still fresh!
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marekoropallo22 April 2020
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"First of all, as a blue-chip comedian, Troisi possesses a singular personage, he doesn't deign to do knockabouts (unlike his contemporary Roberto Benigni), and his humor is not droll, which extracts bona fide affinity and comedic response out of banal and ordinary scenarios with his almost child-like earnestness. In the film, he plays Gaetano, a young man from provincial Naples, who decides not to "start from scratch" but "start from three", just because, in Florence.
Through Gaetano's shyness, Troisi inhabits him comfortably and swimmingly as a simple-minded, sympathetic, doe-eyed guy, who has yet found what is the purpose of his life and tends to float adrift by the transition from provinciality to cosmopolitan independence, especially by the relationship with his new girlfriend Marta (Marchegiani), who is a nurse in a mental hospital and a writer-to-be, whose modernized ideology Gaetano cannot really wrap his head around."
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ItalianGerry27 July 2001This film is about a Neapolitan who moves to Florence. "Emigrant?" everyone asks him. "No, tourist. Everywhere we Neapolitans go, people ask if we are emigrants. Neapolitans travel also." The man in this lunatic comedy, and also its director, is Massimo Troisi who seems like a combination of Chico Marx, Totò, and Woody Allen on Dexedrine. He is as apt a comedian as a performer and his inspired nonsense can send an attuned audience (I suspect his comedy doesn't travel well) into convulsions of laughter. Here is a man who doesn't want to start a new life from zero or from scratch but from three. After all each of us has had two experiences in life that weren't that bad! Massimo Troisi is known to American audiences as the hero of "Il Postino". The actor died soon after completing work on that film.
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Even if it's 20 years old, I think this film is still very relevant, because we remind ourselves in a portrait that depicts the previous generation.
The less of prospects and strong ideals is very topical for this generation too. So the humor of Troisi is only a thin veil that hides a great bitterness.
Troisi was one of the best authors of Italy. -
javalegallo10 April 2021This flick is a masterpiece for every 'commedia all'italiana' enjoyer. It is the first film directed by the late Massimo Troisi and besides the subtle potrait of italian society and the enourmous differences that, still 40 years apart, influence the country, this movie touches your heart for a different reason. Massimo's humor set differences aside and reunited people under the light of true laugh. Rest easy Massimo, you'll never be forgotten.
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davidemauriello20 August 2014If you like to visit Italy, this movie it's a good way to meet and knowing better Italians. Through the eyes of Gaetano, you'll be catapulted in a strong reality for an Napolitan guy in North of Italy, where a shy guy try to beat his frenzy and insecurity. Gaetano leaves Naples to go to Florence and there he tries to build a new existence, far away from the South Italian's stereotype. Of course, this will be impossible! Gaetano is inadvertently funny, people laughs with him out of his intention. His vision of the religion it's something unique for the timing of the movie and for the South of Italy. Gaetano it a simply guy, and everyone of us could be him.