The Girl with a Pistol (1968) User Reviews

Honor, Sicilian style

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 15 April 2010]

Our main interest in watching this comedy was because Mario Monicelli directed it. Alas, the copy that turned up recently on a cable channel was not exactly the best. The film has a more British feeling than Italian, even though its main theme is based on perhaps an antiquated system in Italy where revenge is necessary to defend one's reputation and save the family's good name.

The action takes place in a small Sicilian town. Vincenzo Macaluso sends his gang to kidnap a young woman he wants to bed and make his. Unfortunately, they take Asunta, and not her cousin. Vincenzo, who cannot resist a beautiful woman, has his way with Asunta, against her will. In the morning, she tells Vincenzo he must marry her to save her from the town's ridicule. Unfortunately, he has other plans, and flees to Scotland.

Asunta goes after Vincenzo to get her revenge. She is always a step behind in getting to the scoundrel that deflowered her. Eventually, she lands in Bath, where she spots Vincenzo working at a local hospital. A kind doctor takes pity on her feeble attempts for dealing with the Sicilian man and ends up falling in love with her. When the opportunity to kill Vincenzo, Asunta takes a different approach in dealing with the low life she has been trailing all over England.

Mario Monicelli, a genius in his own right, might have been a bit out of his league working in England. The screenplay is not exactly what one might have expected from Ronald Harwood, the adapter, who up to that point had only worked on television. The screenplay by Luigi Magni and Rodolfo Sonego has some good moments, especially the scenes in Sicily in the opening sequence and in the flashbacks to the sort of "Greek Chorus" composed of the townspeople haunting Asunta's resolve to kill Vincenzo.

Monica Vitti, one of the leading actresses of the Italian cinema showed she had a knack for comedy. She is properly exaggerated as Asunta reacts to the English world around her. The great Carlo Giuffre appears as Vincenzo, a lady killer who finds his way into the hearts of English women. Stanley Baker shows toward the last part of the film.

Fun film worth looking for. *And* Monica Vitti!

[ramito-1 · 8/10 · 26 December 2013]

The first 15 minutes of this are just classic, with Vitti being 'kidnapped' - and a little too ready for seduction, even as she moans "I am cold as marble, you are kissing a dead woman!" The rest of the film has several fine comedic sequences, with Vitti ready to call out every 'putana'who does not meet her strict moral code as she searches for the man who betrayed her. I gave it 8 stars as I had such a good time watching it!

As my review needs more lines, I can mention that La Vitti won a few awards for her performance, and that the film itself was nominated for Best Foreign Film. So while the costumes and concepts make this something of a period piece, don't think it is not make worthy of viewing. Very enjoyable!

Colourful comedy with a surreal edge, and Monica Vitti!

[nmegahey · 7/10 · 21 June 2018]

There's a wonderful surreal character to Mario Monicelli's comedy La Ragazza con la Pistola (The Girl with a Gun), particularly in his fanciful depiction of the strict moral codes of life in a little Sicilian village which exiles a young woman for spending a night with a man. The remainder of the film as Assunta travels across Scotland and England in an effort to track down the terrified Vincenzo with a pistol in her handbag to restore her lost honour, is somewhat episodic and variable, but retains its colourful character and comic touch. Principally however, it's only able to remain as engaging as it does thanks to the irresistible presence of Monica Vitti.

The spectacular opening scenes are actually filmed not in Sicily, but Polignano in Puglia, the geometric structures of its white buildings perched on a crumbling rocky cliff face that seems to be on the verge of toppling into the sea. It does give the surrealism of life in the village an almost Kafkaesque edge that the director exploits marvellously. Despite strict segregation of the sexes and a tight guard, Assunta is abducted by men from Vincenzo's all-male dancing school. Assunat believes that Vincenzo has been watching her through her window, but Vincenzo tells them they got the wrong girl, that he was more interested in Assunta's larger-sized cousin Concetta. "Could be worse", Vincenzo reckons however, and doesn't see any reason why he should let the operation go to waste.

Vincenzo however gets more than he bargained for, as Assunta seems a little more experienced and not as retiring as he might have liked. Knowing that the potential consequence of spending the night with Assunta is marriage, Vincenzo packs his bags and flees the country. Assunta, abandoned, is greeted with wails and laments from the entire village, who come out in numbers to bemoan her lost honour. She is cast out from the town, but not without a pistol in her bag and an address in Scotland where Vincenzo might be found. The strict codes of Sicilian honour demand nothing less.

Vincenzo soon gets wind of Assunta being on his tail, and skips out of the Capri Italian restaurant in Edinburgh fairly quickly and flees across the length of England. Assunta, an avenging angel dressed in black - particularly fetching in sunglasses and black plastic Mac - is however never far behind, always on his tail. Along the way, Assunta meets various men who fall in love with her and experiences all the colour of England in the swinging sixties as well as the industrial greyness of Sheffield, and even ends up on an anti-Vietnam protest in London. La Ragazza con la Pistola eventually runs out of steam in Brighton, but there are plenty of moments of comedy and glamour along the way.

A fascinating time capsule

[philosopherjack · 16 November 2018]

A couple of years after Michelangelo Antonioni made his legendary trip to "swinging" London to shoot Blow-Up, his partner in his great early 60's quartet, Monica Vitti, made her own voyage to Blighty, in Mario Monicelli's The Girl with a Pistol, a film with not an iota of Blow-Up's stature (despite a foreign film Oscar nomination at the time), and yet as fascinating a time capsule in its own way. In broad outline, it's an odyssey of a woman's awakening and self-discovery: Vitti's Assunta travels from Sicily to England to find and kill the man who "dishonored" her, and gradually evolves past her archaic social conditioning (in which every woman who smiles at a man is a "whore") and tempestuous nature to become a confident manipulator of sexuality, professionally and personally. The film's major appeal lies in the glorious culture-clash oddity of seeing Monica Vitti play scenes in industrial Sheffield (with Till Death Us Do Part's Anthony Booth, no less!), or in windy Brighton; or attending a rugby match, or dropping into a northern England gay bar, to name but a few. Monicelli doesn't always exert the tightest control over the concept, populating Britain with characters who improbably speak fluent Italian (one of them played by an ineffectual Stanley Baker); he encourages Vitti into borderline-tedious histrionics. But considering the film in retrospect, one feels surprised at the range of its interests: it nails a Britain where class-oriented grimness (at her English-language class, we see Assunta learn the words "potato" and "marmalade") is starting to give way to greater self-determination and cosmopolitanism, where lives are transformed through entrepreneurship, where straight white men are no longer the sole determinators of sexual destiny; it even makes time to drop Assunta into a peace demonstration (as if flashing briefly ahead to imagine Vitti returning to Antonioni for his next film, Zabriskie Point).

I was an extra in this film

[dalesmobile · 7/10 · 30 August 2018]

I had the honour to appear in this film posing as a ban the bomb demonstrator but I have never had the chance to see it. If anyone could point me in the right direction where I could get my hands on a copy or just see. It is be very grateful

Vitti Laughs!

[JasparLamarCrabb · 6/10 · 7 March 2021]

Mario Monicelli's screwy comedy features the delightful Monica Vitti as an unbelievably resilient would-be bride who will stop at nothing to get her louse of a groom to actually marry her. Chasing him from Italy to England and running into one loony situation after another, Vitti gives the role her all. When doctor Stanley Baker crosses her path, mayhem ensues. A terrific featherweight comedy that somehow managed to snag an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film. Corin Redgrave and James Booth co-star and there's great cinematography by Carlo De Palma, who also shot Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's first color film RED DESERT a few years earlier.

Monica visits regional Britain - what's not to like?

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 26 October 2021]

This comedy features perhaps the most Italian acting performance ever, in the form of Monica Vitti acting extremely Italian at all times and delivering her English lines in an accent so heavy, its often an incomprehensible sweet sound (I watched it in English dub). In it she is the girl with a pistol who chases a no good lover from her home in Sicily to the UK. Her Latin exotic nature is merely emphasised further as she goes to Edinburgh(!), Sheffield(!), Bath(!) and Brighton(!), as well as London. I have to admit, it was something of a novelty to see screen goddess Vitti kicking about in Waverly Station and up the Royal Mile. The story is knockabout and silly and similarly casual in the story-telling department as Modesty Blaise, which was Vitti's first English language film, however, I do always enjoy a bit of Monica, I loved the scenes of 60's Edinburgh and appreciated the manic theme tune 'Girl With a Gun!'

A solid 7

[paulharrison-90525 · 7/10 · 14 April 2021]

Not a great film, but a wonderful snapshot of sixties England, outside of London for the most part. For Chris, a previous reviewer, the rugby pitch could well be Baths Recreation Ground.

Pistol Packin' Monica

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 18 June 2020]

A typically fanciful late-sixties Italian sex comedy with a Hammond organ score and obviously post-synced dialogue in which director Mario Monicelli bounds along in hot pursuit with a zoom lens of Monica Vitti (wearing a variety of wigs and vulger sixties outfits, including a shiny black PVC coat buttoned up to the throat) as she scampers from Sicily through exotic British locations like Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bath, Elephant & Castle and finally Brighton, encountering a quirky succession of British men (Anthony Booth, Stanley Baker, Corin Redgrave) along the way.

Britain as seen through Carlo Di Palma's lens seems a cold, wintry place; none more wintry than poor old Sheffield, disposed of as usual as a hideous concrete jungle (the location scouts again ignoring it's many parks and the Yorkshire Dales within easy reach).

Monica tours the UK

[neil-douglas2010 · 7/10 · 27 January 2022]

Is this a comedy, that's the question. After watching this film I suppose it is of sorts. Essentially Monica Vitti looking very glamorous in different British locations trying to kill the man who ruined her reputation in Sicily. Enjoyable for Vitti's comedy and small parts from Tony Booth and Stanley Baker.

Astonishingly pointless

[gridoon2024 · 3/10 · 6 March 2014]

"La Ragazza Con La Pistola" proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that the old Jean-Luc Godard adage - "all you need to make a movie is a Girl and a Gun" - is not quite true; you also need a point to your movie, which this one sorely lacks; it's more like an exercise in how you can fill 98 minutes (!) with essentially nothing happening. There is some Italian-to-English, and vice versa, wordplay in the early sections of the movie, but then that's all abandoned and it seems as if every person in both Scotland and England can speak perfect Italian. Even Monica Vitti's undeniable charm cannot carry this one very far. * out of 4.

Italian commedy at it's best.

[davidebassini-70576 · 10/10 · 7 November 2020]

As an italian I always loved this movie very much that was shot the year I was born. Like all of Monnicelli's films it's a fierce and biting satire of italian society despite the fact the film takes place enterely in UK. We are in the 1968 the years of the sexual revolution and feminist struglles. The director through comedy ,highligts the difference of a modern country like Great Britain and a conservative, catholic retrograde country like Italy, represented by Assunta and his blind desire to avenge the lost honor. It is actually a deeply feminist movie, that shows the evolution of a woman that, little by little becomes aware that she can be more that just a wife or a woman anchored in the absurd archetypes of the past. I can understand that for modern viewers, especially english speaking, the movie can be a bit silly or naive, but as always in the best italian comedy, the director though parody and laughter, points his fingers at the absurdities of a retrograde society that has not understood that everything is already changed. Last but not least Monica Vitti's beaty and skill take your breath away.

A Sicilian In England

[boblipton · 6/10 · 14 February 2022]

In Sicily, Carlo Giuffrè has his friends kidnap the girl he wants, but they foul up and grab Monica Vitti instead. It's all one to him, so they have a torrid night of passion. But she kisses too well, so he flees to England. Now branded a wanton, she follows him to shoot him and reclaim her honor.

It's a fish-out-of-water comedy, with Miss Vitti utterly baffled by the casual attitude to sex shown by the British, where if a wife cheats on her husband, he tries to kill himself instead of her. She plays it well over the top as she runs into Stanley Baker, Corin Redgrave and othes, who view her with baffled amusement, The movie runs a bit long, but the Roman Vitti's burlesque of Sicilian women is funny throughout.

A dog's dinner

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 8 July 2020]

THE GIRL WITH A PISTOL is an awfully mindless Italian comedy of 1968, distinctive for being partially set in the UK. The extremely slim storyline involves a girl being slighted by her boyfriend, who then absconds to London; she gives chase packing a pistol; what follows is a series of poorly-linked vignettes involving the various characters she meets along the way. It's campy and cheesy, acted in that over the top manner I always find so grating, and perhaps of note only for featuring a rare turn from Stanley Baker later in his career, playing a doctor. Otherwise, it's something of a dog's dinner.

Unusual film

[napev7 · 18 June 2020]

To answer dalesmobile's question, I have just seen the film on Talking Pictures TV tonight, and it may well be repeated on the same channel in the near future.

I enjoyed watching it, if only because of the amount of location shooting in the UK. I would like to know where the rugby match was filmed though.

Almost brilliant movie, but simple.

[Chinesevil · 7/10 · 4 February 2022]

We remember the great actress from Rome, who died a short time ago, and we see that she was one of the best actresses of her time. This movie is quite funny although nothing much. It is original because it shows a woman capable of doing things that only a horrible man can do.

Not bad comedy/drama

[gerry1019 · 6/10 · 27 February 2008]

After looking for a long time I was finally able to get a decent VHS copy of this movie which I had never seen.For me it completes my collection of all of Stanley Baker's theatrical movies.

Sicilian Monica Vitti is "wronged" by her boyfriend who then decamps from her to London.Monica gets a pistol and pursues him with revenge on her mind.

The movie is then a series of encounters with various characters who help her find then lose then find the debaucher.Stanley Baker, who turns up about halfway through the movie as a surgeon is her last connection. The denouement is a little twisty and provides a satisfactory ending.

This is an odd film in which to find Baker. He was a major star but he probably just did it for the money if he wasn't being offered more substantial roles. As a point of interest, the first full length biography of Baker is up for preorder at Amazon UK.

From Sicily to London

[stefanozucchelli · 6/10 · 2 January 2022]

Non-brilliant comedy about cultural differences that confronts a Sicilian woman forced to go to the UK to kill a man who dishonored her. There are some good moments but for the most part this film is negligible.

Monica Vitti does the UK

[williamjohnjamieson · 9/10 · 21 May 2023]

For fans of Vitti in Antonioni films like Red Desert, with a soft spot for Britain in the swinging 60s, this is a delight. I especially liked the beginning and the ending and the pastiche of Antonioni's industrial sound tracks during the scenes in Sheffield against the backdrop of the coal fired power plant in the middle of the city and the "black houses" lined up in soot covered terraces. Vitti even sings. The cast of British male actors is top notch. Tony Booth gets to drive a etype Jag, Stanley Baker the Rover that came with bucket seats in the back as well as the front and Corin Redgrave something grand. There are scenes from British life like an Edinburgh bourgeois party, a gay bar in Bath (although the film uses the argot of the day, queer), an English class for immigrants (from the Caribbean as well as Italy), a brightly lit day time discotheque, an operating theatre in a maternity hospital, a rugby match (and one on TV), a Brighton hotel and a ferry to Jersey. The Clifton suspension bridge makes a brief appearance along with several shots of Georgian terraces in Bath and Bristol airport. London features in a scene supposedly outside a divorce court where Vitti tells Stanley Baker she does not understand why he wants her to come to the zoo with his ex wife and her boyfriend and does not like the zoo. Vitti confirms her status as a hilarious comedienne as well as an art house goddess.