Le cocu magnifique

A top quality cast: Ugo Tognazzi, Claudia Cardinale (both young, virile and beautiful), Bernard Blier, Salvo Randone and, in a small role, Gian Maria Volontè. Another great success of Antonio Pietrangeli, who could have offered us many other masterpieces if he did not died only at the age of 49.

This film is a wonderful comedy. It is very well cast and well acted; both Ugo Tognazzi and Claudia Cardinale are excellent and the film has many fun-filled moments. However, I would not describe and classify this movie as a "light" work. The husband's 'idee fixe' might give the viewers the impression of a silly, obsessive, and paranoid person and (I will admit it) his behaviour does make the audience laugh. He is convinced and determined that his wife is cheating on him --even though she is not being unfaithful. When he looks at her it becomes obvious to him that she is a very attractive woman. And, all the men around her must be dying to be with her. The key issue, however, is (to use a proper term) his "projection". The main reason of his jealousy is his infidelities. If he were in a psychoanalyst's couch talking about his feelings the picture -no pun intended- would have become crystal clear indeed. I hope this gem will be available on DVD --soon.

"Andrea Artusi" (Ugo Tognazzi) is a wealthy hatmaker who happens to have an extremely beautiful wife by the name of "Maria Grazia" (Claudia Cardinale) who loves him very much. Knowing this, Andrea doesn't worry too much about her being unfaithful to him. This changes, however, when he is seduced by an attractive woman named "Cristiana" (Michele Girardon) who happens to be the wife of one of his colleagues. Suddenly, he realizes that, if Cristiana can effortlessly cheat on her husband, then Maria Grazia can easily do the same to him--especially considering how beautiful she is. From that point on, his life becomes a nightmare with every gesture and nuance from her being interpreted as infidelity on her part. And this only creates more problems the longer his suspicions remain unconfirmed. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a decent comedy which started off a bit slow but got better as the film progressed. Likewise, having an absolutely gorgeous actress like Claudia Cardinale certainly didn't hurt this movie in any way either. Be that as it may, while this movie certainly wasn't a great comedy by any means, I still enjoyed it for the most part and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Critics at the time thought this film 'mildly amusing'. There are no belly laughs to be sure but it is a beautifully observed comic gem and one of the finest examples of the genre known as 'Commedia all'Italiana'.

It concerns a man who is convinced that his gorgeous young wife is being unfaithful which leads him to behave irrationally(to put it mildly!) and make an utter fool of himself. He is finally convinced of her fidelity but we know something he doesn't......... Ugo Tognazzi is fantastic as the demented husband and Claudia Cardinale during the best period of her career is simply sensational as his wife. Not unlike Rex Harrison's character in 'Unfaithfully Yours' the husband's imagination takes over and the scenes where he imagines his wife doing a striptease and finding her 'in flagrante delicto' are priceless.

I never cease to be impressed by the quality of black and white cinematography in Italian films of the 1960's and this film is no exception. It is shot by the great Armando Nannuzzi. The score by Armando Trovajoli is fabulous and the art direction/production design by Maurizio Chiari simply stunning. La Cardinale, dressed by Nina Ricci, is pretty stunning as well.

Director Antonio Pietrangeli had just made 'The Visit' and went on to make 'I knew her well' but sadly drowned in 1968. A great loss.