octopus-4

In the early 80's, a realistic view of heroin world with non-professional actors. No messages, no moralistic comments, only the true life in Rome's suburbs. The main actor, Cesare Ferretti, died of AIDS in 1986.

I've seen soap operas more intelligent than this movie. Bad characters, bad story and bad acting. It would be a love story between a man and a mermaid. Really awful.

This could be a XIX century road movie, but the atmosphere is really oniric. There is a strong politically incorrect messageabout religion and capitalism. You can also find a great Ciccio Ingrassia, an actor that spent his career in insignificant B-movies and became great in his last years.

In Italy this movie was distributed as "2002 La seconda odissea" (2002 the second odissey) and has been added a very stupid comment in the beginning, trying to relate this movie to the Kubrick's masterpiece. I think this is the best way to destroy a good movie. Joan Baez's song "Rejoice in the sun" is good and adds a touch of drama. There's no much action, and very few dialogs. This is the only thing that can relate this movie to 2001. My vote 7/10

If you enjoyed other Benigni's works, this movie is your start point to Benigni's world. The story: A little Devil escapes from hell and, after an exorcism, becomes friend of a priest (Walter Matthau). He is only 400 years old and knows nothing about world, sex and so on. Thousands of gags and the little melancholy you can find in "life is beautiful" and "the monster".