Caprice à l'italienne

I think that the episode of Pasolini is wonderful (the last Totò's role!!!). So only for this reason, the film deserves 10! Also Steno's is good. The last (with Walter Chiari) is not excellent. Maybe there isn't a common plot between the episodes but also the movie title suggests the reason. "Capriccio all'italiana" means "Caprice Italian style". So this is the reason... Pietro Virgintino wrote: " [..] The best is the last work of unforgettable Totò , in the two chapters that seem resume his encounter with cinema [..] " . In the restored version for DVD, we can see this film in its beauty..........................................

This movie is bad. Really, really bad. It's just stupid. What on earth was this film meant to be?

Basically it's a collection of short films (some are 20minutes, others 5, this movie is inconsistent like that, you see?) that have nothing in common and have no reason for even being made.

Take for instance the first one. It involves an old man becoming a Beatnik-kidnapper just so he can cut their hair! Another one involves actors participating in a stage play. Another has a royal (where from? why is she there? i dunno. I was kind of dozing off) visiting (i think) a fictional African nation to give a speech. This one is particularly annoying because it was made extremely cheap. For example, when the royal gets off the plane to a wave of cameras and people (reminiscent of La Dolce Vita - a much better film) but instead of showing these photographers being played by actors instead we see small animated sequences. When she goes to shake a government officials hand it cuts to an animated character reaching out. and et cetera.

It is as stupid as it sounds.

And from there it gets even worse. A segment involving a nanny yelling at a group of kids because comic books are EVIL!!! Or something to that effect.

Oy, this was a major slog to sit through. Just boring, stupid and ill-conceived.

And, why doesn't the IMDb offer a 0 rating?

One of the best pieces of the Italian cinema with dialogues written by Pasolini who was a fantastic poet, and somebody is so ignorant to define this a bad movie ? Well I understand that it is not easy if you don't know Italian, but the cast is really very famous, going from Toto (a comic that was also a real Italian prince) to Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Davoli, Modugno, the poetic idea that stands behind this "remake" of the Otello that has a very philosophic interpretation of life (finally I can't explain if you are so dumb not to understand it), and that'all , I finally finished my ten lines, MA VAFFANCULO VERAMENTE, VA !

Like many Italian movies of those years, this film is composed by some episodes (6): they are very different for lenght, style etc. so, it's obvious, even the quality is quite different: Pasolini's is a little masterpiece, full of poetry, and the episode with Totò against long-hair-guys is really hilarious. I have to admit that I don't even remember the other episodes, but those I mentioned above are a must-see, so I give 7 stars, but you can easily find the separated episodes on the Net. Actually, if you are addicted to blockbuster-for-dummies, that means you don't like real cinema, so don't watch this movie!