Excellent, underseen comedy/drama by Alberto Lattuada, best known for co-directing Variety Lights with Federico Fellini. In a Fellini biography I once read Lattuada was quoted as bitterly claiming that he invented Fellini, that Fellini had basically participated in the making of Variety Lights but it was Lattuada's film. Lattuada was just trying to be nice, to help the kid start off his career, and Fellini pretty much stole the style for his subsequent films. Judging by this film, made 12 years afterward, Lattuada had apparently moved on, because this isn't much like Fellini's style (though one could imagine Fellini making a similarly plotted film). However, it is an excellently directed film, one that makes me wonder how many other gems might be hiding in Lattuada's filmography. It stars Alberto Sordi, whom you'll recognize from two early Fellini films, The White Sheik and I Vitelloni. He plays a Sicilian who is now a successful man in Milan. He's married with two young daughters, but he hasn't been home to visit the family since he left. This is the story of his twelve day vacation visiting home, bringing along his family. To his wife (Norma Bengell, a Brazilian actress), Sicily seems an extremely backward country. The whole culture is strange and very different from mainland Italy, and there seem to be hints of criminal activity between every line. She's not wrong. Sordi was never exactly in the mafia when he lived in Sicily, but he was more than a little connected, and now some of the high ranking criminals are thinking his status as unknown outsider might be useful to them. The film is very funny, but it also goes to some dark places. One thing's for sure: I don't think he or his family will want to visit the family again anytime soon.
