Questa è la vita (1954)

Directors:

Aldo Fabrizi
Giorgio Pastina

Writers:

Giorgio Bassani (segment)
Vitaliano Brancati (dialogue) (segment)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

1) A jar repairer gets trapped in a vat because of his hunch. 2) A young unmarried mother is forced to beg to buy herself a fan...

Plot Keywords:

Jar | Begging | Fan | Best Man | Episodic

Cast

Turi Pandolfini	...	Un avvocato (segment "La giara")
Natale Cirino	...	(segment "La giara")
Antonio Nicotra	...	Un giudice (segment "La giara")
Myriam Bru	...	(segment "Il ventaglio)
Totò	...	Rosario Chiarchiaro (segment "La patente")
Aldo Fabrizi	...	Il Professore Fabio Gori (segment "Marsina stretta")
Lucia Bosé	...	Angela Reis (segment "Marsina stretta")
Walter Chiari	...	Il commissario (segment "Marsina stretta")
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Armenia Balducci	...	Rosinella Chiarchiaro (segment "La Patente")
Mario Castellani	...	Altro avvocato
Giorgio Constantini
Ada Dondini	...	Gina Migri (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Anita Durante	...	segment 'La Patente'
Franca Gandolfi	...	segment 'La Giara'
Lauro Gazzolo	...	The administrator (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Giovanni Grasso	...	The doorman (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Zoe Incrocci	...	Andrea's sister (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Salvo Libassi	...	Franco
Alberto Lionello	...	segment 'Il ventaglio'
Agostino Manna
Domenico Modugno	...	Tamantin (segment "La giara")
Jone Morino	...	The administrator's wife (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Andreina Paul
Luigi Pavese	...	Colonel Franco Alonzo (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Pina Piovani
Attilio Rapisarda
Carlo Romano	...	Carlo Migri (segment "Marsina Stretta")
Nino Taranto	...	Bosco
Nino Vingelli

Also Known As:

Of Life and Love (International: English title) (informal literal title)
Patente, La (Italy) (working title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Fortunia Film

Trivia:

The American version is actually distilled from two different Italian episodic features from 1953 and 1954.

Pirandello stories.

This four-episode film, each part by a different Italian director, is based on stories in Luigi Pirandello's "Novelle per un anno" much as the 1985 Taviani Brothers' film KAOS would be. The first episode, "La giara" (The Jar) is the only story that appears in both films. It is about a wealthy Sicilian landowner's large terra-cotta olive vat that is broken and must be repaired by a jar-repairer who becomes trapped inside it. "Il ventaglio" (The Fan) is about a young mother who begs money in order to be able to buy herself a fan. The third episode is "La patente" (The License, or as it was called in the U.S.A. "The Jinx"). It is an amusing little anecdote about a man who wants to get certified as a jinx so that he can make money from his special abilities of warding off the evil eye.The character is played by the marvelous Italian comic Toto'. The last episode is is "Marsina stretta" (Tight Vest) with a corpulent Aldo Fabrizi needing a tuxedo to wear to a wedding and unable to fully fit into a borrowed one. The episodes were directed respectively by Giorgio Pastina, Mario Soldati, Luigi Zampa, and Aldo Fabrizi.