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Une vie difficile

Original title: Una vita difficile
  • 1961
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 58m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
Une vie difficile (1961)
Trailer for the new 4K restoration of Dino Risi's UNA VITA DIFFICILE, starring Alberto Sordi and Lea Massari. Never before released in the USA!
Play trailer2:15
1 Video
36 Photos
ComedyDramaWar

Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.

  • Director
    • Dino Risi
  • Writer
    • Rodolfo Sonego
  • Stars
    • Alberto Sordi
    • Lea Massari
    • Franco Fabrizi
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.0/10
    2.4K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Dino Risi
    • Writer
      • Rodolfo Sonego
    • Stars
      • Alberto Sordi
      • Lea Massari
      • Franco Fabrizi
    • 11User reviews
    • 11Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Una Vita Difficile - Rialto Pictures Trailer
    Trailer 2:15
    Una Vita Difficile - Rialto Pictures Trailer

    Photos35

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    Top cast37

    Edit
    Alberto Sordi
    Alberto Sordi
    • Silvio Magnozzi
    Lea Massari
    Lea Massari
    • Elena Pavinato
    Franco Fabrizi
    Franco Fabrizi
    • Franco Simonini
    Lina Volonghi
    • Amalia Pavinato - madre di Elena
    Claudio Gora
    Claudio Gora
    • Commendatore Bracci
    Antonio Centa
    Antonio Centa
    • Carlo - l'amico di Elena
    Mino Doro
    Mino Doro
    • Gino 'Ragana' - proprietario del night club
    Daniele Vargas
    Daniele Vargas
    • Marchese Capperoni
    Loredana Nusciak
    Loredana Nusciak
    • Giovanna - amica di Elena
    • (as Loredana Cappelletti)
    Borante Domizlaff
    • Il soldato tedesco ucciso da Elena
    Edith Peters
    • Self
    • (as Edith Catalano Peters)
    Valeria Manganelli
    Paolino Vanni
    • Paolino Magnozzi
    Bruna Perego
    Alfonsina Cetti
    Piera Pichi
    Carlo Kechler
    • Rustichelli - aristocrato
    • (as Carlo Kecler)
    Nina Hohenlohe-Oehringen
    • Ospite in palazzo Rustichelli
    • (as Nina Honenlohe Oehringen)
    • Director
      • Dino Risi
    • Writer
      • Rodolfo Sonego
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews11

    8.02.4K
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    Featured reviews

    8meinwonderland

    Echoes of a post-war Italy in the life of a writer

    Written by Rodolfo Sonego, who, like the protagonist, was a partisan during the war, i.e., an antifascist resistance fighter, and directed by Dino Risi, Una vita difficile follows Silvio Magnozzi and the struggles he faces in his personal and professional life as a journalist and aspiring novelist. A movie that, at its core, could be influenced by Italian Neorealism considering the realistic depictions of the social problems in post-war Italy. Nonetheless, Risi's approach is, most of the time, humorous, never ceasing to find comedy in struggles. Alberto Sordi's sensibility combines an expertise in comedy and drama to give Silvio a mixture of idealism and cynicism in a story that takes place between the end of World War II and post-war Italy. The movie is interested in portraying the changes Italy went through and the difficulties that blossomed as a consequence. There's a dichotomy between what is happening in the life of Silvio, misadventures that render many moments humorous, and what is happening at a macro level: Italy's emergence as a republic after a referendum that put an end to fascism. Dino Risi portrays the political changes of an era not only through the eyes of our protagonist but also in an objective documentary-like fashion, taking actual footage of the events and including them in the movie, rendering his filmmaking an exercise in fictional realism.

    The echoes of these changes manifest in Silvio's life. From posing ethical questions to existential ruminations. The movie raises the question of whether it is possible to live on one's own terms when they're challenged by the articulation of normative restrictions by translating Silvio's love for Elena (Lea Massari) but also for his profession as a writer and novelist into a dilemma where the options are postulated as mutually exclusive possibilities. The hegemonic desirability of what one has to do or be is never posed by the "I," but by societal norms whose authorship is never singular and cannot be pointed at. Has dignity a price? Can it be bought? Silvio's existential dilemmas, where his ethics as an idealist contest economic livability and what is deemed as "normal," will find resistance in different ways, e.g., his mother-in-law wants him to study architecture to better provide for his family. This is the reason why its humor is effective, but also the tragedy behind it. Una vita difficile exposes that we are nothing but cogs in the capitalist power structure machine incentivized to pursue superficiality and vapid consumerism. A society obsessed with material consumption.

    Equally a character and historic study, Dino Risi's Una vita difficile is an entertaining commedia all'italiana that successfully achieves humor and profundity at the same time. An invitation to indulge in the charm of romance with music so beautiful as to be, once again, evidence of how important it can be in changing the feel of a movie.
    skulli99

    life is hard !!(especially after fighting five yrs. in a war!)

    Another Alberto Sordi black comedy(similar to "il boom") with bouts of hilarity, but underlying a sad truth of postwar Italy in the 1950's.The existence of a minority of Italians unable to adapt to "bourgeois" civilian life after spending too many years soldiering during the 2nd world war.Alberto Sordi becomes an idealistic loser in an increasingly amoral,money grabbing society which Alberto Sordi tries to oppose, with honest journalism(his last permanent job). Alberto Sordi ends up losing everything,money,wife even freedom (he ends up in jail for libel).A most poignant moment of Alberto Sordi's life and Italian society in general is when Alberto Sordi returns to his wife's village in a luxurious car wearing expensive clothes..and wins back his wife .....but she soon finds out later that all these luxury goods were lent to him by his despotic boss, a rich industrialist who constantly humiliates Alberto Sordi as he works as a man servant in his villa !.(With a memorable final scene).One of Alberto's Sordi's best film(Also he says it too! ).Recently restored in Italy.A 9/10 film.
    7kleita

    like Italian lazy romantic atmosphere? this one is for you!

    I'd say that it is the most Italian movie I've seen in my whole life (and yes I have seen a lots of them). The keyword is LAZY.

    OK, there are a lot of things happening around the characters of the movie- the time is WWII. of course it was a hard time for Italians- Germans occupying Rome etc it isn't that they don't care about them. They do. anyway they don't do anything special, revolutional or hysterical. They just enjoy the life. maybe it wasn't the main idea of Dino Risi when he was making the film but is the main idea for me.

    Perhaps I like it so much just cause for the first time I saw different Alberto Sordi- not that kind of crazy and stupid, and greedy man who all the time is jumping around and eating pasta and telling far-from-clever jokes to far-from-sexy and hysterical women. Maybe it is because first time in my life I heard the Italian hymn (Fratelli d'italia) used as a background in a movie and it didn't sound neither officious nor impertinent. Perhaps it is because of the atmosphere that is so lazy and romantic- the conversation scene in the bed in a lodge placed in the middle of the forest between Silvio and the young girl while his friends partisans were 'playing with the guns' outside. This is the way I saw Italy for the last time I was there. It was in autumn. Don't get me wrong- the events aren't taking place in autumn. It's just about the atmosphere.

    I will lie if I say that this is a very important relating the history of civilization film. It isn't. It doesn't solve any psychological or political problems neither. Maybe it is more for those who are excited with Italy for the right reasons but don't live there yet/anymore.
    6ricardojorgeramalho

    Light

    A film that aims to give a critical image of post-war Italy. A society sold on the values of consumerism, capitalism and corruption, completely forgetting the revolutionary dream of those who fought against fascism. Silvio Magnozzi, the character played by Alberto Sordi, is precisely the symbol of these communist fighters, who do not want to surrender to the economic miracle of the bourgeois nouveau riche and, for this very reason, have a difficult life, without money and without family. It is an Italy that has forgotten its values and lives only on appearances and trivialities.

    The message is interesting, but the content is superficial. Alberto Sordi is not very convincing as a revolutionary. Nor does his character show great ideological convictions, lost between his love for his wife and the revolution and constantly surrendering to alcohol.

    As a social critique, the film falls short. As a comedy or family drama, it completely fails.

    It is certainly not one of the best moments in cinema, neither by Sordi nor by Risi.
    3MovieGuy-10924

    Annoying Character Annoys Cast and Audience

    Alberto Sordi is a talented actor, but other than Lo Sceicco Bianco, I have yet to find a movie where I have enjoyed his character. In this movie he plays an annoying self-centered loser who repeatedly abandons his wife/girlfriend and still gets her in the end. His difficult life is all of his own making. I would say that all self-centered losers should watch this film, but maybe they'll learn the wrong lesson. Don't waste your time with this movie.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Borante Domizlaff, who plays a Nazi Officer, was really a SS Officer during World War II. He was also among those accused of war crimes, specifically the Ardeatine Massacre; like most of the officers accused of that crime, he was acquitted, as only their superior officer Herbert Kappler was sentenced to life imprisonment.
    • Connections
      Featured in Legendy mirovogo kino: Alberto Sordi

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 22, 1976 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • Italy
    • Languages
      • Italian
      • German
      • English
    • Also known as
      • A Difficult Life
    • Filming locations
      • Lenno, Lombardy, Italy
    • Production company
      • Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $71,630
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $9,167
      • Feb 5, 2023
    • Gross worldwide
      • $71,630
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 58m(118 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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