Avanti, Avanti!

If you have ever been to Italy, you will love the jokes in this movie that comically describe Italian ways (bureaucracy, long lunch hour, dramatic love behavior), but also admire them (love to good food, music etc.) You will also love the beauty of the setting: gorgeous Italian places, the sea, fishing boats, lively streets and amusing characters. This movie depicts what a good life consists of and it does it in a comic way, so you feel great while watching this movie, even tough there is death, and mourning and trips to the morgue. All these can be beautiful and romantic including the dying itself ("if happened during a high season"). It is also stimulating to see how "perfectly toned body syndrome" was not present in 1972, and the main characters display without guilt their bodies which they love just the way they are.

This movie is somewhat long, especially if you watch it on TV with commercials, but it stays fresh and you never want it to be over. Jack Lemon at first is such a prig you wonder that Juliet Mills will ever have anything to do with him, but of course all ends well, with Lemon providing the comic focus. My favorite line in the movie occurs when the valet Bruno has been attempting to blackmail Lemon with nude pictures of his father. Lemon, not knowing Bruno has just been killed by his mistress complains to the manager, and ends by saying Bruno should be shot. The manager assures him that it has already been taken care of. What Service!

Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon didn't go straight for the belly laughs in this departure from their usual all-out-crazy comedies. Fans of the masters will be pleasantly surprised by this delightful romantic comedy, which captivates the viewer from the very start. Mezmerizing backdrop music plays as though secretly staged by Cupid standing by to assure that lovebirds will find one another. Lemmon plays the son of a mega-wealthy American business man who had to drop everything to fly to Italy in order to claim the father's remains after a car accident. En route to his late father's "final stop", Lemmon runs in to a persistent young woman, who turns out to be the daughter of the woman with whom the father had had a lengthy affair, and who was found lovingly slung around his neck as they both died in said accident.

The situation seems rather awkward at first, but eventually Lemmon and the young woman begin following into the exact same steps their departed parents had done years earlier. The picture is completed by a brilliant supporting cast of hotel personnel and colorful locals. The performance of the multi-talented and ever-present-minded hotel manager was Oscar worthy.

Listening to the testimony of all people asked, Lemmon learns that his late father and his "friend" were viewed as Royalty, nothing less than figures from a fairy tale. The concluding scenes are the final touches to a most enchanting romantic comedy, one that has few rivals in its category. Billy Wilder has done it again. What he missed in big laughs, he made up in many magic moments and gentle pressures to your tear glands. One of the very best out there. Belissima!

In a way, it's a typical Jack Lemmon character: Demanding, often unreasonable, aggravated & angry.

In Italy for very personal reasons, he gets entangled in a few messes. There's comedy alright. He just wants to get his business done and return to America. Of course that doesn't happen.

What makes this movie is Juliet Mills. I confess I didn't know she was Haley Mills sister until now. I had seen her on tv decades ago but didn't pay her much mind.

In this vehicle though, she's pretty delightful, and makes the movie. Her character, while fragile, is also sweet, and quite the free spirit at the same time.

Of course I must make mention of the naked scene where the two stars swim out to a rock, and bask in the sun, still in the raw. Now who doesn't love Lemmon? Classic icon American actor. And even if he were 25, I'd prefer to see him clad in some kind of clothing. At 47, even my wife wanted to cover her eyes. If he would've just stayed underwater.

Juliet Mills? The polar opposite. She was 31 here, and just as pretty as a woman gets. The 'girl next door beautiful', which for many of us, is simply the most attractive and alluring. And forgive me, but what a body. Holy cow, was she one vivacious Brit. Just plain hot. It was 1972 so everything was real too!! Could have viewed her all day; whether it be in the raw or in the beautiful dress she donned at dinner.

The movie is fun enough. It hinges on the hi-jinx resulting from the not so ethical, Italian elements around town, all of whom are out for a quick buck from the well-to-do Lemmon. These somewhat cornball bad guys are also the source of much of the comedy. The bad guys have a "Pink Panther" flavored hokeyness to them that keeps everything light. (I speak in general here so as not to spoil it for those who wish to take in this movie for the 1st time.)

I recommend it for a viewing. Jack doing his thing to a tee, and little known Juliet Mills is as charming as she is naturally beautiful.

Thx

Bob R.

So much has been said about the plot of Avanti it seems pointless to go over the synopsis again- but I can say although I am a lover of Horror films, Thrillers and Westerns- it is Avanti that is my favourite film of all time.Avanti is gorgeous to look at and features a beautiful music score. How I wish I could obtain a soundtrack of this delightful score. The scene when Pamela Pigott ( Juliet Mills ) tours the city on a horse drawn carriage and later running from her new found admirers is beautiful with the music so perfect.Also when Pamela and Wendell ( Jack Lemmon ) have their evening meal together , it is again a beautiful music score. Jack Lemmon as the bombastic Wendell Armbruster is as always great. Juliet Mills as Pamela Pigott looks far too gorgeous to be ridiculed by Armbruster but she shines in her finest ever role. However for me the film is stolen completely by Clive Revill as the hotel manager- what a sublime performance. Watch his every movement, his every expression, his delivery of every line.It is a captivating performance, totally exquisite. Clive Revill is an actor sorely neglected by the film world.Billy Wilder's film is so very neglected and it's a pity as this is the perfect film. Watch the beautiful, poignant sequence at the mortuary as Pamela and Wendell view the bodies of their mother and father respectively. And again watch Clive Revill alongside Lemmon and Mills- acting with only movement, expression and not a word. The lighting in this scene is so wonderful, it is dark and depressing with the exception of a shaft of sunlight penetrating the smallest of windows. Wilder manages to wring excellent portrayals out of even the most minor of characters. Watch Avanti and savour the acting, the music and the scenery.