The Monsters

Punctuated by a perfect pace and fierce and withering incisiveness, I mostri offers a panorama of Italianness in its variations of semi-criminal cunning, hypocrisy, cynicism, oiliness, opportunism, exploitation and systematic deception of others. The deadly sins of a humanity greedy for prosperity (these are the boom years) are described without indulgence or complacency, and with the perfect measure of a black and bitter humor. Ugo Tognazzi and Vittorio Gassman, at times victims and at times executioners, are extraordinary both in their histrionics shades and with the nuances they give their characters. Among the most memorable episodes are La nobile arte, with a clobbered boxer played by Gassman and the simian vulture-manager by Tognazzi, L'oppio dei popoli on the already devastating effects of television, La giornata dell'onorevole in which Tognazzi, a Christian Democrat minister, succeeds in neutralizing an old gentleman who had come to report a wrongdoing, using a strategy of never-ending and Kafkaesque antechambers. (Venice International Film Festival)