A Difficult Life
| A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Dino Risi |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Written by | Rodolfo Sonego |
| Starring |
Alberto Sordi Lea Massari Franco Fabrizi Claudio Gora |
| Music by | Carlo Savina |
Release dates | 19 December 1961 |
Running time | 118 min |
| Language | Italian |
A Difficult Life (Italian: Una vita difficile) is a Commedia all'italiana or Italian-style comedy film directed by Dino Risi in 1961.
Plot
Silvio (Alberto Sordi) is an Italian partisan, he and his companions belong to Italian resistance movement fighting against the fascists and the Nazis. They are at Lake Como. He is helped by Elena (Lea Massari). He spends three months hiding in Elena's grandfather's mill. They fall in love. Silvio is an idealist, probably communist, journalist writer. He goes back to war.
The film spans the story of Italy from 1944 to 1960, from the times of poverty in World War II to the birth of the Italian Republic, the elections and Silvio's ideals of the Italian Communist Party, his stay in jail, his disappointments, his crises with Elena, his attempts to get his works published and to sell his film scripts in Cinecittà to Alessandro Blasetti, Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman (they appear as themselves).
Cast
- Alberto Sordi: Silvio Magnozzi
- Lea Massari: Elena Pavinato
- Franco Fabrizi: Franco Simonini
- Lina Volonghi: Amalia Pavinato
- Claudio Gora: Commendator Bracci
- Antonio Centa: Carlo
- Loredana Nusciak: Giovanna
- Daniele Vargas: Marquis Capperoni
- Franco Scandurra: President of the examination board
- Mino Doro: Ragana
Cult scenes
Some scenes are famous in the history of Italian cinema: the dinner at Princess' palace with the referendum of the Italian Republic; when Silvio asks a shepherd guard, "Dimmi, pastore, tu sei felice?". (Tell me, are you happy?); when a drunken Silvio spits at all the cars that drive by on the road after his wife had escaped from a night club in a very long piano sequenza shoot.