ottavio Review of Un borghese piccolo piccolo

Un borghese piccolo piccolo (1977)

A disturbing film you'd never expect with Alberto Sordi

[17 September 2004]

I saw this film only once in Italy in 1983 and I swear the whole city I was visiting shut down that evening to view this film. I was long-accustomed to Alberto Sordi playing the comedic clown in his films but THIS film is a cross between a light-hearted Italian comedy and Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. In fact, the moment I view the torture of the policeman scene in Reservoir Dogs I immediately remembered watching Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo so long ago. Alberto Sordi plays a Roman bureaucrat desperate to get his son a job with the Roman municipal government - even going to the extent of attending an underground Fascist meeting (although vehemently anti-Fascist) to run elbows with bureaucrats on the hiring board. Shortly thereafter, during a botched bank robbery where Sordi and his son are literally at the wrong place at the wrong time, the son gets killed by machine gun fire by fleeing bandits. At this point the film is no longer a comedy. Sordi memorizes the features of the gunman and ends up tracking him down and then sadistically torturing him, tied to a chair at his cottage, in retribution for his son's murder. Disturbing stuff indeed that had you glued to the television set. A film I will never forget and WOULD LOVE to get a hold of on DVD. SAdly, an overlooked film starring Alberto Sordi but 'ya never know - perhaps Quentin Tarantino may release it again to a North American audience? Speriamo...