La Vie aigre

Original title: La vita agra

1964
1h 44m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Luciano Bianchi lives with his wife and son in the small town of Guastalla. As an intellectual and bibliophile, he works as head of cultural initiatives at a mining plant.Luciano Bianchi lives with his wife and son in the small town of Guastalla. As an intellectual and bibliophile, he works as head of cultural initiatives at a mining plant.Luciano Bianchi lives with his wife and son in the small town of Guastalla. As an intellectual and bibliophile, he works as head of cultural initiatives at a mining plant.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

461

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total

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9:57

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Trivia
The Italian singer-songwriter Enzo Jannacci makes two appearances during the movie, singing "L'ombrello di mio fratello" (1961).

Connections
References Main basse sur la ville (1963)

User reviews1

Featured review

6/10

A decent movie inspired by a wonderful book

This less well known '60s Italian Comedy is the attempt to translate into a movie one of the greatest books Italian contemporary literature has to offer: Luciano Bianciardi's "La Vita Agra".

The movie tells the story of Luciano Bianchi, an intellectual coming from a provincial area of Italy, moving to Milan after a mine accident killed some of his friends and co-workers. Milan in the is the symbol of the economic growth and increasingly wealthy lifestyle that characterised Italy's in the 60s, and Luciano's life changes dramatically: he leaves his wife and kids behind, gets a new job and falls in love with Anna, a young and lefty journalist.

Carlo Lizzani modified the story told by the book in many crucial parts, and making it more suitable for a movie, he took away the most touching and extraordinary features of the book: the cruel irony, the sense of disillusionment, the struggle between personal ethics and the real world during the economic boom.

A decent movie, but I definetly recommend to read the book (it's available on translation). It's my favourite book ever, by the way.