Commedia all'italiana (Italian:[komˈmɛːdjaallitaˈljaːna]) orItalian-style comedy is an Italianfilm genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started withMario Monicelli'sBig Deal on Madonna Street in 1958,^[1] and derives its name from the title ofPietro Germi'sDivorce Italian Style (1961).^[2] According to most of the critics,La Terrazza (1980) byEttore Scola is the last work considered part of thecommedia all'italiana.^[3][4][5]

Rather than a specific genre, the term indicates a period (approximately from the late 1950s to the early 1970s) in which theItalian film industry was producing many successful comedies, with some common traits like satire of manners, farcical and grotesque overtones, a strong focus on spicy social issues of the period (like sexual matters, divorce, contraception,marriage of the clergy, theeconomic rise of the country and its various consequences, the traditional religious influence of theCatholic Church in Italy) and a prevailingmiddle class setting, often characterized by a substantial background of sadness andsocial criticism that diluted the comic contents.^[6]

The genre ofcommedia all'italiana differed markedly from the light and disengaged comedy of the so-called "pink neorealism" trend, in vogue during the 1950s, in its departure fromneorealism's strict adherence to reality. Alongside the comic situations and plots typical of traditional comedy, it combined a biting and sometimes bitter satire of manners with irony to highlight the contradictions of contemporary Italian society.^[6] The setting was often Italy of the time period, although films that used different historical contexts to take aim at social current affairs were not uncommon.^[7]

Starting from the end of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Italy experienced numerous phases that radically changed the mentality and customs of Italians. The economic situation, student unrest and the search for new emancipations in the world of work and family, became the ideal place within which to project the characters of the comedy, ready to revive the changes in civil society on stage.^[8]

For Italy, these were the years of the economic boom, which were followed by those of social conquests, in which a radical change took place in the mentality and also in the sexual habits of the Italians, the birth of a new relationship with power and with religion, the search for new forms of economic and social emancipation, in the world of work, family and marriage, all themes that can be traced in the films belonging to this vein. During the 1970s, thecommedia all'italiana even touched on more complex social issues, with works with a basically dramatic background (for example,In Prison Awaiting Trial byNanni Loy orAn Average Little Man byMario Monicelli).^[6]

The success of films belonging to thecommedia all'italiana genre is due both to the presence of an entire generation of great actors, who knew how to masterfully embody the vices (many) and virtues (few), and the attempts at emancipation but also the vulgarities of the Italians of the time, both to the careful work of directors, storytellers and screenwriters, who invented a real genre, with essentially new connotations, managing to find precious material for their cinematographic creations in the folds of a rapid evolution with many contradictions.^[6]

If one wanted to identify a manifesto of this kind, whose charm also rests, in part, on the vagueness of shared or in any case easily identifiable aesthetic canons, one could probably refer to three films out of all,I mostri byDino Risi (withVittorio Gassman andUgo Tognazzi, who during the various episodes of the film are transformed into a series of grotesque characters),Be Sick... It's Free byLuigi Zampa, and its sequelIl Prof. Dott. Guido Tersilli, primario della clinica Villa Celeste, convenzionata con le mutue byAlberto Sordi, and Monicelli'sBig Deal on Madonna Street, where Gassman is joined byMarcello Mastroianni,Totò, and a roundup of exceptional character actors. This last film, the first in chronological order among those mentioned (1958), is considered by many critics, due to its setting, themes, typology of characters and aesthetic settings, the starting point of the realcommedia all'italiana.^[1]

It is generally believed that it was the directorMario Monicelli, progenitor and among the greatest exponents (withDino Risi,Luigi Comencini,Pietro Germi andEttore Scola) of thecommedia all'italiana, who inaugurated this new phase with the feature filmBig Deal on Madonna Street (1958), written together withSuso Cecchi D'Amico and the screenwriting duoAgenore Incrocci andFurio Scarpelli. The work combines grotesque cues with sequences typical of underclass drama, filming with great detail a peripheral and degradedRome, still extraneous to the economic processes of theItalian economic miracle.^[9] The film proved to be a success (even across borders) so much so that it was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film.^[7]

In 1959,The Great War by Monicelli was released in theaters, withAlberto Sordi andVittorio Gassman. The feature film, inspired by a story byGuy de Maupassant, contaminates historical tragedy with comedy modules, the massacres ofWorld War I, taboo for all national cinema.^[10] AfterThe Organizer (1963), Monicelli directedFor Love and Gold (1966). The film is a mixture of fantasy and farcical adventures that unfold throughout an unbridled and carnivalesque Middle Ages, in clear controversy with the opposite vision of the middle age proposed by Hollywood cinema.^[11] Some time later, in full protest, he broughtThe Girl with the Pistol (1968) to the screens, sensing the comic qualities of the actressMonica Vitti.^[12] Among subsequent films by Monicelli areWe Want the Colonels (1973),Come Home and Meet My Wife (1974),My friends (1975) andAn Average Little Man (1977). The latter work is explicitly affected by the repressive climate of theYears of Lead and gives the actor Alberto Sordi one of his darkest and most suffered characters.^[13]

The 1960s was the period of the Italian economic miracle and consequently the cinema is affected by the changes that modify Italian society. One of the first artists to document these changes was the Milanese filmmakerDino Risi. In his best known feature filmIl Sorpasso (1962), the director mixes, with acute sensitivity, comedy and seriousness of the subject, veering, in an unusual way, in a dramatic and chilling ending. The histrionics of Vittorio Gassman and the soundtrack, with pieces byEdoardo Vianello andDomenico Modugno, photograph the picture of the time, making the comedy genre reach full authorial maturity. Also directed by Dino Risi is the cult movieI mostri (1963) andA Difficult Life (1961), which brings an intense Alberto Sordi to the scene. The film is an artistic document on post-war Italy and the nascent democracy, in a perfect balance between farce and drama, between sociological ambitions and political disillusionment.^[14] Other works worth mentioning areIl vedovo (1959),Il Mattatore (1960),The Thursday (1964),Weekend, Italian Style (1965),Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses (1968),In the Name of the Italian People (1971) and the filmScent of a Woman (1974), fully supported by the acting verve of Vittorio Gassman.

It should be highlighted how often the constituent elements of comedy have been artfully intertwined with different genres, giving rise to decidedly unclassifiable films. In inaugurating this technique, the filmmakerLuigi Comencini was undoubtedly one of the most important authors. After having achieved popularity in the 1950s with some pink comedies (among all the well-knownBread, Love and Dreams 1953), in 1960 he gave Italian cinema the war operaEverybody Go Home. The feature film, constantly poised between humor and drama, reconstructs the days following theArmistice of Cassibile, helping to break the wall of silence that had fallen on theItalian Civil War, a topic hitherto ignored by a large part of national cinema.^[14] Among his best works areOn the Tiger's Back (1961),La ragazza di Bube (1963),The Scientific Cardplayer (1972), the dramaThe Adventures of Pinocchio (1972),The Cat (1978) andTraffic Jam (1979), in which different genres and styles merge.

Another leading figure for the development and imposition of thecommedia all'italiana is the directorPietro Germi. After having ventured into works with an evident civil content, somehow attributable to the canons ofneorealism, in the last phase of his career he directed films that could be inserted within the range of comedy, where components of criticism survive alongside the usual humorous tones on the customs of the middle class.^[15] The already mentionedDivorce Italian Style opened the doors to Germi's success which materialized withSeduced and Abandoned (1964) and with the clear and causticThe Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1965). The film (a satire on the bourgeois hypocrisy of a small town in the upper Veneto region) won thePalme d'Or at theCannes Film Festival equal toA Man and a Woman (1966) byClaude Lelouch.

The latest protagonist of the great season of comedy was the Roman directorEttore Scola. Throughout the 1950s, he played the role of screenwriter, to then make his directorial debut in 1964 with the filmLet's Talk About Women. In 1974 he directed his best-known film,We All Loved Each Other So Much, which retraces 30 years of Italian history through the stories of three friends: the lawyer Gianni Perego (Vittorio Gassman), the porter Antonio (Nino Manfredi) and the intellectual Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores). Other important films areUgly, Dirty and Bad (1976), led by Nino Manfredi, andA Special Day (1977), whereSophia Loren andMarcello Mastroianni give one of their most high and poignant performances.^[16]

In 1980, the director sums up thecommedia all'italiana in the generationalpamphlet ofLa terrazza, which effectively describes the bitter existential balance sheet of a group of left-wing intellectuals. According to most of the critics, the film is the last work still attributable to thecommedia all'italiana.^[3][4][5]

A separate place is occupied byAntonio Pietrangeli, who in almost all of his films has dealt with female psychology, outlining portraits of unhappy and tormented women with marked sensitivity, fromAdua and Her Friends (1960) toLa visita (1963), fromThe Girl from Parma (1963) toI Knew Her Well (1965), considered his masterpiece. Other significant works are the timelessThe Traffic Policeman (1960) andBe Sick... It's Free (1968) byLuigi Zampa,Crimen (1961) byMario Camerini,Leoni al sole (1961) byVittorio Caprioli,To Bed or Not to Bed (1963) byGian Luigi Polidoro, as well as some comedies byVittorio De Sica, such asIl Boom (1963),Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) andMarriage Italian Style (1964).

Between the 1960s and 1970s, the cinema ofLuciano Salce, author of many comedies with guaranteed box-office receipts, became famous. In addition to the comic cycle of films based on the adventures of the accountantUgo Fantozzi, we can mentionThe Fascist (1961),Crazy Desire (1962),The Hours of Love (1963) andDuck in Orange Sauce (1975), all enriched by the recitative flair ofUgo Tognazzi. Also isFranco Brusati's filmBread and Chocolate (1973), which revisits the various problems ofItalian diaspora with biting intelligence, aided in this by the incisive interpretation ofNino Manfredi. Brusati himself directedTo Forget Venice (1979).

Also in this context, the work done by the directorLina Wertmüller, who together with the experienced couple of actorsGiancarlo Giannini andMariangela Melato gave life, in the first half of the 1970s, to successful films amongThe Seduction of Mimi (1972),Love and Anarchy (1973) andSwept Away (1974). Two years later, withSeven Beauties (1976), she obtained fourAcademy Awards nominations, making her the first woman ever to receive a nomination for best director.^[17]

Of note is the artistic product ofSergio Citti, who along the lines of certainPasolinian cinema directs bizarre and surreal comedies, achieving convincing results in more than one film among which areOstia (1970),Beach House (1977) andIl minestrone (1981). Other directors worth mentioning areNanni Loy for the filmThe Four Days of Naples (1962),Steno in the successful filmFebbre da cavallo (1976),Sergio Corbucci,Salvatore Samperi,Gianni Puccini andMarcello Fondato. Others arePasquale Festa Campanile,Luigi Filippo D'Amico,Tonino Cervi,Flavio Mogherini,Franco Rossi andLuigi Magni, who in his small but significant production, outlined comedies set in papal andRisorgimento Rome that often saw Nino Manfredi as the leading actor.^[18]

Among the forerunners of thecommedia all'italiana are certainly two of the great actors of the 20th century,Aldo Fabrizi, who anticipated the genre with some successful films of the early 1950s, andTotò, forerunner of thecommedia all'italiana with the popular trend of "Totò e Peppino" in which another famous actor of Neapolitan comedy appeared as a sidekick,Peppino De Filippo. The two actors, in addition to playing leading roles in a large number of feature films of the genre, left an indelible mark, as guests of honor, in some masterpieces of the time. Totò for example, inBig Deal on Madonna Street (1958) and Peppino de Filippo inFellini's episodeThe Temptations of Doctor Antonio inBoccaccio '70 (1962).^[6][19]

Among the actors, in addition to Totò and Aldo Fabrizi, the main representatives areAlberto Sordi,Ugo Tognazzi,Vittorio Gassman,Marcello Mastroianni andNino Manfredi,^[20] while among the actresses isMonica Vitti.^[21] However, there are numerous high-level interpreters working in the genre. Among these areSophia Loren,Gina Lollobrigida,Claudia Cardinale,Vittorio De Sica,Franco and Ciccio,Raimondo Vianello,Gino Cervi,Walter Chiari,Aroldo Tieri,Franca Valeri,Stefania Sandrelli,Gastone Moschin,Silvana Mangano,Carla Gravina,Adolfo Celi,Carlo Giuffrè,Aldo Giuffrè andLando Buzzanca.

Subsequently (from the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the following decade),Paolo Villaggio,Gigi Proietti,Giancarlo Giannini,Michele Placido,Laura Antonelli,Stefano Satta Flores,Mariangela Melato, as well as an infinite number of excellent character actors and supporting actors, among which areGianni Agus,Tiberio Murgia,Carlo Pisacane (better known as "Capannelle"),Renato Salvatori,Mario Carotenuto,Memmo Carotenuto,Tina Pica,Marisa Merlini,Ave Ninchi,Carlo Delle Piane,Leopoldo Trieste,Giacomo Furia,Luigi Pavese andRaffaele Pisu. Even great actors who tend to be dramatic, such asGian Maria Volonté,Enrico Maria Salerno andSalvo Randone, have sometimes successfully ventured intocommedia all'italiana. There are also many foreign performers who have often been protagonists or co-stars in films belonging to thecommedia all'italiana genre, includingCatherine Spaak,Louis de Funès,Fernandel,Sylva Koscina,Bernard Blier,Mario Adorf,Tomas Milian,Philippe Noiret,Senta Berger,Jean-Louis Trintignant,Claudine Auger,Ann-Margret andDustin Hoffman.^[22]

Thecommedia all'italiana was a creation ofCinecittà and initially was often set inRome, with Roman actors or, even more often, Roman by adoption (for example,Vittorio Gassman, born inGenoa, moved to Rome at a very young age,Ugo Tognazzi, fromCremona, took his first steps in theavanspettacolo of the capital,Marcello Mastroianni andNino Manfredi, both originally from theprovince of Frosinone, trained artistically in Rome). After all, Italian public life of the time was mainly centered in the capital, whereVia Veneto, with its cafés frequented by artists, actors, adventurers and photographers (the so-calledpaparazzi), who made the social life of the Capitoline beau monde famous throughout the world.^[24]

Although, even a large and busy city such asMilan throughout the 1950s seemed to remain almost on the sidelines, perceived more as a center of business and work than of worldly events, only to return to a leading role with theItalian economic miracle of the 1960s. Among the most genuinely Roman interpreters,Alberto Sordi participated in over 140 cinematographic works, ended up embodying, perhaps better than any other, his city of origin, giving life to a vast range of characters representing situations and issues of society weather.^[25]

However, although the Roman setting was very frequent, the genre always represented Italian society in its most different facets and many films attributable to the genre were therefore set in other important Italian urban realities (for exampleNaples inSeven Beauties andTreasure of San Gennaro,Florence inMy Friends,Milan inIl vedovo andCome Home and Meet My Wife) or in the microcosm of the small Italian province (for exampleVeneto inPolice Chief Pepe andThe Birds, the Bees and the Italians,Sicily inDivorce Italian Style, the Lombard town ofVigevano inThe Teacher from Vigevano and theMarche village of Sacrofante Marche inTorture Me But Kill Me with Kisses and theAscoli Piceno inAlfredo, Alfredo).

Since the 1960s, there have also been numerous films portraying Italians struggling with the rest of the world, starting with the figures of emigrants abroad during theItalian diaspora.^[26] Nino Manfredi played an immigrant toSwitzerland inBread and Chocolate and Alberto Sordi played an immigrant toAustralia inA Girl in Australia. Italians abroad find themselves, in the most diverse situations, also inThe Girl with the Pistol,Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?,To Bed or Not to Bed,Fumo di Londra,An Italian in America,Run for Your Wife,My Brother Anastasia, and many others.

Comedies in which the Italian setting is transposed into different historical contexts are also not infrequent. From theMiddle Ages byMario Monicelli inFor Love and Gold andBrancaleone at the Crusades, to the papal Rome of theRisorgimento byLuigi Magni inThe Conspirators andIn the Name of the Pope King, to the numerous films that portray Italians grappling with the ups and downs over the years of thefascist regime andWorld War II, such asThe Fascist,Roaring Years,We All Loved Each Other So Much,The Two Marshals,Everybody Go Home, or evenPolvere di stelle, the story of a shabbyavanspettacolo company struggling with the upheavals of theBadoglio Proclamation, and many other films.^[27]

The genre had great success for over 20 years, from the end of the 1950s^[28] to the end of the 1970s.^[29] In its climax, especially around the second half of the 1960s, the bestcommedie all'italiana frequently found themselves at the top of the box office charts, not only in Italy, but also in various other European countries. The success in some cases was such that it allowed actors such asSophia Loren,Walter Chiari,Vittorio Gassman,Gina Lollobrigida,Virna Lisi to attempt cinematic experiences in Hollywood as well. In fact, the genre, together withneorealism andspaghetti Westerns, was the only one that could be successfully exported and also appreciated abroad, despite the fact that the situations and contexts represented were sometimes so typically "Italian" as not to always be fully perceived by the foreign public.^[30]

In some cases, due to the particular themes dealt with, even of significant social relevance, somecommedie all'italiana not only caused a stir at the time, but even contributed to animating the debate on the proposed themes. This is the case, for example, ofBe Sick... It's Free, on the mechanisms of the Italian health system, orIn Prison Awaiting Trial, on the judicial and prison system, orDivorce Italian Style, on the law concerning crimes of honour.^[31]

Even after many years, evenHollywood has rediscovered somecommedie all'italiana, making more or less successfulremakes of them. This is the case, for example, ofOnce upon a Crime byEugene Levy, a remake ofCrimen byMario Camerini, orCrackers byLouis Malle andWelcome to Collinwood byRusso brothers, withGeorge Clooney, both remakes ofBig Deal on Madonna Street, orSwept Away byGuy Ritchie, remake ofSwept Away byLina Wertmüller, as well as the more famousScent of a Woman byMartin Brest, starringAl Pacino, remake ofScent of a Woman byDino Risi.

After the great public successes and critical acknowledgments, thecommedia all'italiana genre began to decline around the end of the 1970s, to run out almost completely at the beginning of the following decade. Due to the disappearance, in those years and in the immediate period precedent, of some of its most charismatic protagonists (this is the case, for example, ofVittorio De Sica,Totò,Peppino De Filippo,Pietro Germi,Antonio Pietrangeli,Gino Cervi,Tina Pica,Camillo Mastrocinque), the inevitable aging of a whole generation of directors and actors who had been the architect in the first years and, above all, the changing socio-economic and political conditions of Italy at the time.

The progressive escalation of social and political conflict in Italy in the 1970s, with the eruption of terrorism, the economic crisis, and a widespread sense of insecurity, in fact ended up extinguishing that drive towards an ironic smile which had been the dominant feature of thecommedia all'italiana in the best years, replaced little by little by an ever more crude and dramatic vision of reality.^[4]

Already in 1975,Mario Monicelli, with hisMy Friends, gave a fundamental turning point to comedy in this sense as the happy ending and the light ending definitively disappear, the characters remain comical but become bitter and pathetic, in an atmosphere of general bitterness and disenchantment. Even further, between 1977 and 1980, some of the best films of the period seem to go, such asAn Average Little Man orLa terrazza, considered by many critics to be among the last fully attributable in the genre ofcommedia all'italiana, which they mark a rather decisive inversion from the comic to the dramatic in the first case, and from the comic to a bitter historical-cultural reflection in the second.La terrazza in particular, from 1980, constitutes according to most of the critics last works still attributable to thecommedia all'italiana.^[3][4][5]

The genre ofcommedia all'italiana in a broad sense, albeit with characteristics that are by now profoundly different from those of the 1950s and 1970s, found its place in the Italian film scene in the early 1980s with filmmakers such asCarlo Verdone,Nanni Moretti,Maurizio Nichetti,Roberto Benigni,Francesco Nuti,Alessandro Benvenuti andMassimo Troisi. Starting from the 1990s, feature films byGabriele Salvatores,Paolo Virzì,Francesca Archibugi,Daniele Luchetti andSilvio Soldini, joined by more disengaged comedies such as those byLeonardo Pieraccioni,Vincenzo Salemme,Giovanni Veronesi and others. These artists represent the ideal heirs of the film genre, even if for the majority of critics the true and propercommedia all'italiana is to be considered by now definitively waned since the beginning of the 1980s, giving way, at most, to acommedia italiana ("Italian comedy").^[32] The stylistic differences between the various filmmakers would be excessive, such as to be able to trace a common school, and the socio-cultural conditions with which currentItalian cinema is confronted are too different by now, for one to think to a continuity with the period in which this genre was born and developed (1958–1980). It is no coincidence that the very termcommedia all'italiana now unanimously identifies an era which, with rare exceptions, does not go beyond the early 1980s, so much so that, from then on, it has almost never been used by critics and journalists to tag newly produced comedies.^[4]

• Cinema of Italy
• Commedia sexy all'italiana
• Italian neorealism

• Lanzoni, Rémi Fournier (2009).Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies. Continuum.ISBN 978-0-8264-1822-7.
• Bini, Andrea (2015).Male Anxiety and Psychopathology in Film: Comedy Italian Style. Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-1137516886.

• (In Italian)The Commedia all'italiana on the RAI's site
• (In Italian)Centro Studi Commedia all'italiana
• (In French)La Comédie à l'italienne sur le site Comedie Italienne
• (In French)La Comédie à l'italienne sur le site du ciné-club de Caen

• Commedia all'italiana
• Italian comedy films
• Italian films by genre

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from May 2021
• Pages with Italian IPA
• Articles with Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with French-language sources (fr)