A film by Pietro Germi (1961). With Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli...
Far from his roles as romantic seducer, Mastroianni plays a man as cynical as he is ridiculous, in a scathing critique of Italian society in the 60s. With the story of a Sicilian nobleman who plots an honor killing to get rid of his wife, Germi pokes fun at the archaic legislative situation in his country, where the absence of divorce law and the regulation of honor killings (enshrined in the penal code) lead fickle husbands to find perfectly immoral solutions. A jewel in the crown of Italian comedy, his film made such an impact on the collective imagination that it spawned a trademark title, which would later be used in a number of satirical works in Italy.
Presented by Primissimo Piano, the Italian film club of the Dante Alighieri Association.
Far from his roles as romantic seducer, Mastroianni plays a man as cynical as he is ridiculous, in a scathing critique of Italian society in the 60s. With the story of a Sicilian nobleman who plots an honor killing to get rid of his wife, Germi pokes fun at the archaic legislative situation in his country, where the absence of divorce law and the regulation of honor killings (enshrined in the penal code) lead fickle husbands to find perfectly immoral solutions. A jewel in the crown of Italian comedy, his film made such an impact on the collective imagination that it spawned a trademark title, which would later be used in a number of satirical works in Italy.
Presented by Primissimo Piano, the Italian film club of the Dante Alighieri Association.
