Amici miei
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| Amici miei | |
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| Directed by | Mario Monicelli |
| Written by | Pietro Germi Leonardo Benvenuti Piero De Bernardi Tullio Pinelli |
| Starring | Ugo Tognazzi Gastone Moschin Philippe Noiret Duilio Del Prete Adolfo Celi Bernard Blier Milena Vukotic Silvia Dionisio |
| Music by | Carlo Rustichelli |
| Release date(s) | August 15, 1975 |
| Running time | 140 min. |
| Language | Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
Amici miei (English title: My Friends) is a 1975 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Mario Monicelli. The film was followed by two sequels, Amici miei Atto II (1982, also by Monicelli) and Amici miei Atto III (1985), the latter directed by Nanni Loy.
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[edit] Plot
Like in numerous others Monicelli's movie, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen as usual from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, "gypsy shenanigans") in a continuous strife to prolong childhood during the adult life.
Count Mascetti (Ugo Tognazzi) is an impoverished noble who has no means to support his family, but anyway does not renounce to high living pleasures and has an underage mistress, Titti (Silvia Dionisio). Perozzi (Philippe Noiret) is an easy-living journalist harassed by the unceasing disapproval of his wife and his son. Melandri (Gastone Moschin) is a communal architect whose main goal is to find the ideal woman. Necchi (Duilio Del Prete) is the owner of a Café in whose pool hall they usually plan the zingarate.
During the movie they are joined by a renowned, military-like surgeon, Sassaroli (Adolfo Celi), in whose clinic they are recovered after being hospitalized, injured after a mismanaged zingarata. Melandri fell in love with Sassaroli's wife, exclaming "I've seen the Madonna!", only to discover she has psychological problems.
The plot is mostly composed by the different jokes organized by the friends, including the creation of a fake mafia mob in whose "criminal acts" they involve one pensioneer (Bernard Blier) who used to snatch croissants from the cakes' tray in Necchi's Café, and Mascetti's attempts to save his family despite his relationships with Titti. The film ends with Perozzi's death, which however did not deprive the friends of their dissacrating mood, not even in face of death: when Perozzi's wife, criticized by Melandri for her lack of tears, comments: "One can weep if somebody dies. But here nobody has died", Mascetti replies: "Well, in reality he had never been so much". Along the funeral procession they "homage" their dead friend by telling the wide eyed pensioneer that Perozzi was killed for being a traitor to the mafia.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Portrayed |
|---|---|
| Ugo Tognazzi | Lello Mascetti |
| Gastone Moschin | Rambaldo Melandri |
| Philippe Noiret | Giorgio Perozzi |
| Duilio Del Prete | Guido Necchi |
| Olga Karlatos | Donatella Sassaroli |
| Silvia Dionisio | Titti |
| Franca Tamantini | Carmen |
| Angela Goodwin | Nora Perozzi |
| Milena Vukotic | Alice Mascetti |
| Bernard Blier | Niccolò Righi |
| Adolfo Celi | Professor Sassaroli |
| Maurizio Scattorin | Perozzi's son |
[edit] Other
- The project was begun by Pietro Germi, who could not continue it due to his premature death. Monicelli, who replaced him, moved the set from Bologna to Florence.
- In the original version Philippe Noiret is dubbed by Renzo Montagnani, who, in the sequels, replaced Del Prete as Necchi.
- One of the most popular scene is that in which the four friends, in order to raise Melandri's mood after his falling out with Sassaroli's ex-wife, organize a zingarata consisting in slapping people stretching out from the windows of a leaving train. One of the victims is Perozzi's son himself.
[edit] External links
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