Il giudizio universale

"Il Giudizio Universale" is like one of those Hollywood or international co-productions (say, "Casino Royale 1967") which gather a lot of big names in the cast and think that's enough for the viewers - they don't need to give them anything to do. A promising premise (loud God-like voice from the sky announces that the Final Judgment will start....tonight at 18:00) is first botched, then abandoned altogether (to give you an idea, the funniest gag is when the voice adresses - in Italian - a man in Blackpool, he says "Excuse me, do you speak English?", and the voice responds "No"). Disjointed, pointless, plotless, and unfunny. * out of 4.

The great duo: Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavatine present us with a hyper, neo-realistic, surreal vision of our fears in a magic mixture of horrors and joyfulness. Black and white and color, hope and desolation with an ensemble cast that it's as bizarre as it is extraordinary. Alberto Sordi, Melina Mercouri, Vittorio Gassman, Anouk Aimee, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine even Jimmy Durante and Renato Rascel. The interconnecting vignettes have an inexorable point of reference. The end of the world. The film, at times, appears to be a "divertimento" that builds to something apocalyptic and finishes in a hurried fizzling note, but it is in fact a superb exercise playing wittily with the fear of our ultimate and unavoidable demise. Among the many delights that the film offers there is a superlative performance by Alberto Sordi in one the most repellent characters in his long collection of repellent characters. A strange, funny, unsettling and fascinating film.