| Director: | Ettore Scola |
|---|---|
| Production: | Compagnia Cinematografica Champion |
| Running Time: | 115’ |
| Language: | Italian |
| Country: | Italy |
| Year: | 1976 |
| Main Cast: | Francesco Anniballi, Maria Bosco, Giselda Castrini |
| Screenplay: | Ruggero Maccari, Ettore Scola |
| Cinematographer: | Dario Di Palma |
| Editor: | Raimondo Crociani |
| Production Designer: | Franco Velchi, Luciano Ricceri |
| Costume Designer: | Danda Ortona |
| Music: | Armando Trovajoli |
| Sound: | Carlo Palmieri |
| Restoration: | Surf Film SRL / Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia / Cineteca di Bologna |
Cinema
Brutti, sporchi e cattivi (Ugly, Dirty and Bad)
Venice Classics
Synopsis
Set in the Roman outskirts in the 1970s, the film portrays the life of a very large family: twenty-five people living in a shantytown.
At the centre of the story is the patriarch Giacinto Mazzatella, a one-eyed despot originally from Puglia, who treats his family members with brutality and greed. Family life is marked by conflict, poverty and intrigue. The plot revolves around Mazzatella’s obsession with one million lire (received from the insurance company as compensation for the loss of his eye), which he hides and guards with paranoid jealousy.
Director’s Statement
What I wanted to make was a film about prices. And that, for one, was something people didn’t understand. It was the age of consumerism. Everything (as Pier Paolo Pasolini had said) had become homogenised: tastes, traditions, cultures – everything except prices. Different classes and social groups paid different prices. Needs are born out of desires; desires become needs. But these were needs that belonged to only one class: the bourgeoisie. Before, every class had its own desires and its own needs. Instead, they had all been turned into common needs. The bourgeois person could just pay the market price: a motorcycle for the dentist’s son cost one million lire; for someone from the outskirts, it could mean stealing, robbery, or sometimes even death. Maybe the idea I wanted to express about the different prices people paid was not clear enough, and people did not immediately understand it. But Pasolini understood it straight away.
Production/distribution
PRODUCTION:
Surf Film Srl, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Cineteca di Bologna – Massimo Vigliar, Steve Della Casa, Gian Luca Farinelli
Viale della Tecnica 205
00144 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39 0654221801
E-mail: vigliar@surffilm.com
Web: http://www.surffilm.com
PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING:
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
LAB:
L’immagine Ritrovata
WORLD SALES:
Surf Film Srl - Vigliar Massimo
Viale della Tecnica 205
00144 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39 0654221801
E-mail: vigliar@surffilm.com
Web: http://www.surffilm.com
ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
Surf Film Srl - Vigliar Massimo
Viale della Tecnica 205
00144 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39 0654221801
E-mail: vigliar@surffilm.com
Web: http://www.surffilm.com
PRESS OFFICE:
Silvia Saitta - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale
Tel: +39 3282010029
E-mail: silvia.saitta@fondazionecsc.it
