"Il sorpasso" is an Italian, mostly Italian-language movie from 1962, so this one is way over 50 years old already now and it was directed by Dino Risi, who is also one of the writers here. The other two writers are Scola and Maccari, soccessful in their very own right. And by the way, over a decade later Risi and Maccari collaborated again on a script/movie that gave them their one and only Oscar nomination. But lets talk a bit about this movie now. It runs for approximately 105 minutes and is entirely in black-and-white, not too uncommon for 1962, even if there were more than just a few films in color already. The two lead actors are Victorio Gassmann and a certain Jean-Louis Trintignant, who turns 90 soon and was in his early 30s at that point, only so you see how long he''s been in films already. These two play characters that meet early on in the movie and could not be any more different. Bruno is the one enjoying life and everything that comes with it, women parties, alcohol... while Roberto is a rather introvert character who's got nothing planned except studying for his law exam. These two get together by coincidence as Bruno has to make a phone call (to a girl of course) and Roberto lets him. And not much later, they end up in a car together going on a most unusual journey, at least for Roberto. Bruno does that every day probably. Anyway, I will not go too much into detail what happens on said journey. Just a bit. There are several references to the title with one car overtaking another, also at the crucial ending, so scene with cars driving down the really broad streets are not a rarity here and I was surprised how much I liked these scenes as honestly I couldn't care less for cars in general. What else? Oh yeah they meet each other's families. We find out a most likely revelation about Roberto's family members and who may be the father of whom and eventually we also meet Bruno's wife and daughter in a really long sequence. Boy was Catherine Spaak stunning. Anyway, there is not too much to say about Roberto as we basically join him in watching Bruno throughout the entire film. You could say the latter is a bit of a survival artist (eventually even in the truest sense of the word as he managed to get out of a falling car in time. Will this event change him? Not in a million years!) getting as much fun as possible from life. But is he happy? It is not clear. There is one moment when he says he is all alone and has no friends, but the next moment we see him with a ridiculous mask joking around, so you can never be sure how serious you can take the man after all. But yeah, the magic with his wife seems long gone as we find out eventually. Clearly he can only make an impact for a little while only it seems. But this impact is majestic. He is not scared of meeting beautiful girls or rejection. And he does not envy others as we find out in that scene when he says something along the lines that Roberto should have tried to be with the waitress as she would not have rejected him as she did with Bruno.
This is a most light film mot of the time. The only more dramatic struggles (except the ending) are about cars racing against each other, broken toilet room handles and a bit of a brawl that really does not end up violently or anything at all. Well, maybe this is just the untrained eye and you can find some drama or misery on other occasions and depth when it comes to the characters like Roberto realizing he has never really lived life the way he wanted to, but perhaps just wasted it most of the time doing stuff he had to do as a reliable citizen, but not stuff he really wanted to do, maybe because he didn't even know he wanted to do these things. he learns now during his road trip with Bruno. But there is a bitter awakening. As happy as realizing this may seem, there is an abrupt ending to his plans. It is really tough to say what Risi had in mind with that. To show us how fugacious life can be and start living? Well this is just one theory and there are probably a million others honestly. It will all depend on your personal approach and perception how you see this film. With this exact ending, it is of course not just a comedy, but also a tragicomedy. And it did come very unexpected for sure. A bit of a pity that there was a speaker before my showing who talked a bit about the film's background and she really spoilered the ending most irresponsibly. Anyway, I still think it was a good choice to watch this film on the big screen. However, I definitely do believe the rating here is way too high because honestly I think that makes it one of the highest-rated Italian films of all time and such it is not in my opinion. But it is a good watch and there are several reasons and aspects to enjoy the film. The music was amazing for example. And I must admit I never would have recognized Trintignant here. Some actors you easily recognize the face from their younger years now that they have grown old (like Redford for example), but Trintignant I don't think so. A slight criticism I would also add is that I felt the two main characters did not have the most amazing chemistry and I did not feel that they really grew as close as the film wanted us to think. As a consequence, I also felt the change of thought process in Roberto's mind did not feel entirely realistic to me and his extroverted unleashing towards the end about what the time with Bruno did with him did not win me over. But yeah, other than that I had a fun time watching and the one thing I also learned is that if you chase after beautiful girls, be always prepared that they may be heading into the direction of a cemetery, which can make things really awkward. I think this one is worth seeing. Like with many other old films that lack today's blockbuster approach, this is certainly not a movie for everybody, but if you manage to get sucked in by the story (and I did, quicker than expected in fact) and Gassmann's character, then you will not be disappointed. I give it a thumbs-up!
This is a most light film mot of the time. The only more dramatic struggles (except the ending) are about cars racing against each other, broken toilet room handles and a bit of a brawl that really does not end up violently or anything at all. Well, maybe this is just the untrained eye and you can find some drama or misery on other occasions and depth when it comes to the characters like Roberto realizing he has never really lived life the way he wanted to, but perhaps just wasted it most of the time doing stuff he had to do as a reliable citizen, but not stuff he really wanted to do, maybe because he didn't even know he wanted to do these things. he learns now during his road trip with Bruno. But there is a bitter awakening. As happy as realizing this may seem, there is an abrupt ending to his plans. It is really tough to say what Risi had in mind with that. To show us how fugacious life can be and start living? Well this is just one theory and there are probably a million others honestly. It will all depend on your personal approach and perception how you see this film. With this exact ending, it is of course not just a comedy, but also a tragicomedy. And it did come very unexpected for sure. A bit of a pity that there was a speaker before my showing who talked a bit about the film's background and she really spoilered the ending most irresponsibly. Anyway, I still think it was a good choice to watch this film on the big screen. However, I definitely do believe the rating here is way too high because honestly I think that makes it one of the highest-rated Italian films of all time and such it is not in my opinion. But it is a good watch and there are several reasons and aspects to enjoy the film. The music was amazing for example. And I must admit I never would have recognized Trintignant here. Some actors you easily recognize the face from their younger years now that they have grown old (like Redford for example), but Trintignant I don't think so. A slight criticism I would also add is that I felt the two main characters did not have the most amazing chemistry and I did not feel that they really grew as close as the film wanted us to think. As a consequence, I also felt the change of thought process in Roberto's mind did not feel entirely realistic to me and his extroverted unleashing towards the end about what the time with Bruno did with him did not win me over. But yeah, other than that I had a fun time watching and the one thing I also learned is that if you chase after beautiful girls, be always prepared that they may be heading into the direction of a cemetery, which can make things really awkward. I think this one is worth seeing. Like with many other old films that lack today's blockbuster approach, this is certainly not a movie for everybody, but if you manage to get sucked in by the story (and I did, quicker than expected in fact) and Gassmann's character, then you will not be disappointed. I give it a thumbs-up!