La commedia all'italiana

There is a paradox at the heart of the Italian-style comedy Italian-style: it makes you laugh, but leaves always a sense of bitterness.

The genre developed itself in Italy between the end of the Fifties Fifties and the beginning of the Seventies Seventies, in a a country that was rapidly changing rapidly.

Directors such as Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli and Luigi Comencini used comedy comic as a lens through which to observe the contradictions of Italian society Italian.

Actors like Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman and Nino Manfredi embodied characters ambiguous: neither heroes nor villains, but ordinary Italians common faced with grappling with the modernity.

The character of Alberto Sordi, in particular, became the mirror of the Italian average: opportunistic, cowardly, but in some way likeable.

Films such as I soliti ignoti by Monicelli or Il sorpasso by Risi blend laughter and tragedy with an ease that few other cinemas have matched.

These films remain one of the contributions most original of the cinema Italian to world culture world.