Parfum de femme

"Profumo di dona"is not only an italian film with exuberant delight of life, it's the pride of Europe and european 7th Art. Why? Because of good playing, good production and of course good scenario. I don't know why American had to do a remake? Or perhaps european sensibility doesn't mean anything in USA? That film give us the opportunity to be happy as human being, to be happy to live. That's why cinema is so magic!

An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples. The captain, Fausto, who wants no pity, brooks no disagreement, and charges into every situation, nicknames the youth Ciccio ("Babyfat"), and spends the next few days ordering him about and generally behaving badly in public.

Where this film excels is in its originality. I saw the Al Pacino version many years ago and loved it, never realizing it was a remake. Now, one could argue that it was the better film. Maybe, maybe not. But it definitely gave Pacino one of his career performances.

And yet, there is something to be said about the original. The actors aren't as big, and it may not be as accessible to Americans, but it has all the great things that Pacino had, and did them so much sooner.

I have seen the remake with Pacino a few times, and I do like it. Even though it is almost too sentimental, I like it. I especially like the tango scene. There is one ludicrous scene where a blind Pacino is driving a Ferrari in Manhattan at high speeds - PLEASE. I'm willing to suspend disbelief for enjoyment of a movie, but this was too much to ask. There would have been an accident! In spite of this and other flaws, it is a moving film.

OK, I just saw - finally - the original Italian version with Vittorio Gassman. It is better, way better. It makes the statement about loneliness, self pity, the handicap of blindness, in a simpler, purer way. It is just as touching, but less heavy-handed. Gassman is a brilliant actor, and frankly, better looking and sexier than Pacino in my humble opinion. (Also a lot taller!) But the main difference in the films: this one is FUNNY. Humor is used to make the point about the tragedy of the Captain. He is impossible in a way that is funny--outrageous-- and you can't help but laugh. The version with Pacino has very little humor.

See this one, read the subtitles, and enjoy a masterpiece.

Only 2 User comments available at the time I decided to write this one and both of them negative. Both of them Typical American reaction to a European movie. A big misunderstanding. Yes, the Remake with Pacino is a good movie and nothing else. The original one, "Profumo di Donna" is a great masterpiece, and it makes a big difference. My piece of advice : do not try to watch "Profumo di Donna" with a Hollywood eye.

I don't necessarily want to slam the Hollywood re-make of this, which was a decent film in its own right that finally gave Al Pacino a long-deserved Academy Award, but frankly this is the better film. Vittorio Gassman doesn't necessarily give a better performance than Pacino as the blind, disabled,and sex-obsessed military man, but his is a somewhat more low-key one that involves a little less scenery chewing. Moreover, Gassman's character comes off as more tragic and more realistic since this version really doesn't have misguided "redemptive" courtroom scene that the re-make did.

While largely unknown, the young Italian actor Alessandro Momo is far, far better than the deservedly washed-up Chris O'Donnell, who is the real weak link in the American film. Then there's Agostina Belli. Both Gabrielle Anwar in the re-make and Belli in this are achingly beautiful girls, but whereas Anwar has little more than a cameo in the Hollywood film, Belli has a much meatier role (not to mention some nice nude scenes). Basically where the re-make relies on Pacino's considerable acting talents and dialogue to "tell" about the character's haunting obsession with the "smell" of a female sex that is forever lost to him, this movie does a lot better job because it is not afraid to actually "show" it.

Finally, there is director Dino Risi, who American director Martin Ritt is frankly not fit to pull focus for. Risi is one of those unfortunate Italian directors (like Salvatore Samperi, Pasquale Festa, Massimo Dallamano, and Alberto Lattuada) who was not QUITE in the class of Fellini, Pasolini, or the Antonioni, and has therefore been undeservedly condemned to obscurity. Risi made at least two other very good films I've seen, both also with Gassman--the 60's film "Il Sorpasso" and the later genre film "Anima Perse"--but this is generally considered his masterpiece.

Even when they have someone as talented as Pacino on board, American re-makes sometimes equal but rarely improve on an original film like this because its originality is inevitably lost in the rush to "Americanize" it. I'd actually recommend EITHER of these movies to anybody, but make no mistake, this is the better one.