Alfredo, Alfredo!

Pietro Germi is one of the unsung heroes of the film world. "Divorce Italian Style" catapulted him from total obscurity to partial obscurity, at least for a while. In his native Italy, naturally, he is highly regarded, considered, quite rightly, one of the best. But even then, once rarely hears Germi's name in the same breath with Fellini or De Sica, Rosellini or Antonioni. He was a sort of Preston Sturges. He ventured into varied genres in a masterful and innovative way. Think "Divorce Italian Style" and "Un Maledeto Inbroglio" "Seduced and Abandoned" and "The Birds, The Bees and The Italians" Different universes, always darkish, always funny, always brilliant. Marcello Mastroiani in Germi's hands created a miraculous character in "Divorce Italian Style" Saro Urzi was unbelievable in "Seduced and Abandoned". In "Alfredo Alfredo" everything seems a bit off. It's not the Germi I have come to know and love, I mean, not quite. I detect the presence of a virus in his system, I wonder if it is the, then, well known and feared Hoffman decease. It drove directors insane. I had heard of some pretty nutty behavior on the set of "Agatha" that lovely picture directed by Michael Apted. Here you sense that Germi is not at his freer. You sense some kind of hurry and frustration, never before evident in a Germi film. I'm of course, merely speculating but I can't help wonder that if this is a smaller Petri, is due, in great part, to the bigger star. I suppose we'll never know so don't bother, run to your nearest "smart" video place and get all of Pietro Germi's films pre-Alfredo Alfredo.

Alfredo, Alfredo is to Italian comedy such as Lina Wertmuller films, as Class AA baseball is to the major leagues. Hoffman, a very good dramatic actor, always plays the nebbish in comedies. Sometimes this approach works, as in The Graduate, and other times it is less successful, as in this film. The film is still entertaining, but not very logical. One would assume from a few dates with a high-octane, sexually challenged Italian girlfriend, that, while the relationship might be exciting for a short period of time, a consideration of marriage would be moronic. The rest of the film shows us the consequences of a very poor decision. Funny in the early part of the film, but no so much in the latter. Hoffman is no Giannini, and this director is no Wertmuller.

Dustin Hoffman plays that nebbiscio italiano. He's the sort of person who spends his evenings at home with his father watching slideshows. Of his best friend having a good time.

Dustin tends to mug a bit, but he's fine in general. You tend to forget that you're not hearing him speak Italian. That trick is pulled off easily enough; most of the "dialogue" is done in voice-over by Dustin's character. He doesn't actually have to say much more than the occasional "Pronto!" on the telephone.

Director Pietro Germi has an uncanny ability to populate his films with beautiful young women. The lovely Cosetta Greco comes to mind. Gina Lollobrigida and Claudia Cardinale are just average by Germi standards -- nothing special. Here Dustin's co-star is Stefania Sandrelli, the stunning Stefania Sandrelli. Stunning by Germi standards. She's more ravishing here than she is in his earlier "Seduced and Abandoned", another farce from 1964. She makes me think a little of a Catholic Elsa Zylberstein with a cleft chin. "Stefania! Stefania!" the film could have been called.

Writer/director Germi then plays matchmaker, putting the stammering junior bank employee, Dustin, together with Stefania, the kohl-eyed Venus of hot-blooded pharmacists, creating a classic Italian sex farce.

This film does not have a good reputation, but it produced plenty of big laughs this evening at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Admittedly, it was a Pietro Germi Festival audience, many of them Italian speakers. Hardly a tough crowd. And it was the full-length original cut. The humour is very broad and could easily fail miserably on television.

The film shifts gears midway through, grinds gears really. Stefania, the angel-madonna-whore, turns out to be a "strega" as they like to say in Italian, and the film turns into a semi-serious pro-divorce romance cum drama cum political manifesto on the necessity for Italian legislative reform. And all a little unexpectedly. Do we detect some directorial autobiography intruding into the story at this point?

Tonight I was expecting something extremely bad, something along the lines of Dustin's other adventure in Italian filmmaking, "Madigan's Million" (1968), but I got something considerably better than that. The treasure hunt sequence is rather cute.

But let the viewer beware.

Dustin hoffman had showed his colors in acting back in the day already. The italian character was played by him fabulously and i have watched this movie in 2020 after some 48 years and its still relatable.

Dustin was a legend already he is a master of doing common man roles

One of the best roles for Dustin Hoffman and the film is not American, it's Italian! His other three super roles are in "The Graduate", "Midnight Cowboy" and "Marathon Man". Along with him, two very beautiful and very talented actresses, Stefania Sandrelli and Carla Gravina, both excellent, their merit and that of the script. Not coincidentally, the director is Pietro Germi, who also had Sandrelli in "Divorce Italian Style" and "Seduced and Abandoned", two superfilms. Beautiful music by Carlo Rustichelli.