Les Monstres

For me it's difficult to speak about this great comedy. it's very funny with sometimes black humour. There is also a good psychological analysis of italian society. Dino Risi with "I Mostri" & "I Nuovi Monstri" do an excelent job. Gassman and Tognazi are exceptional.

My advice: - If you have seen the movie, see it again and if you haven't you must try to find it.

Sketch movies are usually not my favourites, but this one is really good! It is a incredible festival of comic roles, brilliantly interpreted by a legendary duo : Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi! Two "monsters" of italian cinema... These 20 mini-stories illustrate all the faults and defaults of Italian people of that time through an incredible kaleidoscope of characters and situations. Gassman and Tognazzi give it their best and the result is brilliant. Dino Risi casts a tender and ruthless eye on his compatriots, and very often our prejudices are comforted. An excellent moment of cinema!

This is considered a classic of Italian comedy – one of many anthologies satirizing their way of life while showcasing the versatile talents of particular stars (in this case, Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi); director Risi would himself later make the similarly episodic I COMPLESSI (1965), SESSOMATTO (1973) and this film’s own sequel, I NUOVI MOSTRI (1977) – which, quite surprisingly, was a Best Foreign Language Academy Award nominee the following year.

As with most films of its type, quality varies throughout the 20(!) episodes – some of these are so short that they’re over before having even begun, while others work their way to a punchline which can be seen coming a mile off; however, a fair number of them are genuinely inspired and side-splitting to boot (the general tone throughout, as befits the title, is one of irreverence). A few episodes include other name performers – such as Michele Mercier and Lando Buzzanca – but it’s Gassman and Tognazzi’s show all the way (the two appear either separately or as a team). Armando Trovajoli’s upbeat score (which is mixed with a handful of current hit songs) is the perfect accompaniment to this entertaining and well-made compilation.

My favorite episodes are the following: the opening one – in which scoundrel Tognazzi’s schooling of his nerd-ish son (real-life offspring Ricky, later an actor and director in his own right) works all too well, to his own personal detriment; another where a gang of ‘thugs’ including Gassman kidnap an old lady (apparently for the nth time)…as it transpires not for ransom purposes but, rather, so that she can perform a dangerous and humiliating stunt involving a wheelchair-bound woman being thrown into a pool in a film whose director is Gassman himself (in another role)!; also, a courtroom drama in which simple-minded Tognazzi’s voluntary testimony is turned against him by the underhanded tactics of the defense counsel (a flamboyant Gassman); the most famous episode, then, is the concluding one with the stars as a couple of boxers way past their prime who decide to try their luck at the game one last time (with Gassman in the ring and Tognazzi as his manager) – we last see them flying a kite on the beach, Gassman having taken such a severe beating that he is reduced to a vegetable!

Other notable skits include the titular episode where a murderer is captured by a couple of cops – except that these are so ugly that one wonders who The Monster actually is!; one involving a soldier (Tognazzi) who meekly presents his deceased sister’s diary to a newspaper, ostensibly the one she was most sympathetic to herself…except that it eventually transpires that he was merely interested in how much he could make out of the salacious memoirs and that he naturally would let them go only to the highest bidder!; yet another deals with Gassman, living in the slums with a plethora of kids and relatives, cursing his rotten luck – and, yet, has no qualms about spending his measly pay on soccer matches every Sunday (where he contrives to forget all his misery and lets rip with enthusiasm for the game)! Two (minor) episodes, then, play with issues of gender and sexual orientation: in one Gassman even appears in drag as a female literary critic (who awards the “Book Of The Month” prize to none other than her own protégé, a novice author!), and in another Tognazzi and Gassman play beach studs who discover they have greater affection for each other than their possible ‘preys’!

This film is terrific, at the same level as Risi's The Easy Life. Each of the 19 episodes works wonderfully. The two principal actors, Gassman and Tognazi are superb. I laughed loudly many times during the film, shown in Paris where I am currently spending three months, as the first film in an Italian Comedy series running at the Reflet Medicis cinema. The final episode, The Noble Sport,was tragic in its denouement, just as the final scene in The Easy Lifeis tragic. In that film, the Gassman character, Bruno, walks away,physically unscathed. In I Mostri, the character played by Gassman in the final episode, does not get off so lucky. It is inexplicable to me that these films are not available on DVD (or video) in the United States. Of course many great films are not available, but do not hesitate to go significantly out of your way to see this film.

I MOSTRI is a masterly comment on the rot, dignity, suffering, forbidden pleasures, good and evil at the heart of society. It happens to be Italian society under the microscope, but it would easily apply to most societies. Some of its sketches are very thought-provoking, presenting different characters in different stations in life, but always with a cynical incisiveness and a sense of humor that keep the film firmly anchored to ground reality.

From a cinematic standpoint, I MOSTRI is blessed in various ways. Director Dino Risi, actors Gassman and Tognazzi, and writers Incrocci and Scarpelli are all in top form.

Black and white photography serves the film's biting commentary on society well, and Alfio Contini does a great job of filming, regardless of whether he is closing up on the actors' faces, shooting boxing bouts, or doing interiors or exteriors.

I MOSTRI goes on for two hours, which, in my long film lover's life, tends to be excessive, but in this case it held my attention throughout, even conceding that it could have done without a couple of the sketches, which are immediately forgettable.

"I due orfanelli", "Il Sacrificato," "La Nobile Arte," "Il Povere Soldato," "Vernissage" are all outstanding segments, with Gassman and Tognazzi unafraid to play despicable characters, and switch to noble ones. It is a pity that acting of this quality should go unrewarded, when one sees so much rubbish from much more famous and far better paid actors in other parts of the world.

Director Risi, just off his masterpiece, IL SORPASSO, the previous year (1962) is in the greatest form of his career. A well deserved 9/10.