Il Mattatore

The Italian film comedy The Master Rogue ( Il matta store) was in 1960, directed by Dino Risi. The screenplay was written Ruggero Maccari, Ettore Scola and Sandro Continenza, according to a story by Age & Scarpelli and Sergio Pugliese. The title character in this commedia all'italiana plays Vittorio Gassman, who assumes many roles within the narrative.

Action

At the door of Gerardo and his wife Annalisa heralds a stranger who wants to cut the sale of a silver statue over the ear. Gerardo This unveils him; he knows the tricks of scammers and con artists and tells the man his life story: He once eked out an impoverished existence as a stage comedian who was booed by the audience. His fiancée Anna Lisa, a chorus girl in the same premises, was angered by the circumstances. Gerardo left to be hired by crooks as impersonator in a coup, was tricked and ended up in jail. There he was given the nickname "The Artist " because the inmates rejoiced at his acting deposits. The pathetic performances were indeed of düftiger quality, but his audience could not " run away ". Dismissed after four months, he is active as a fraud and slips it through disguise and dissimulation in a variety of roles.

First Gerardo performs with chinotto, a crony from prison, petty theft, such as shoes or Christmas collections. After perfecting his methods, he turns to jewelers as preferred victims. A stolen ring gives the Filou Anna Lisa, who urges him to marry and start a family, but not to tolerate a continuation of his criminal career is ready. Gerardo is very careful not to let her take his freedom. With a demonstration of destructive clumsiness he thwarts Anna Lisa's attempt to give him an honest job. She leaves him and enters into a relationship with an accountant. Gerardo buys a car, shifting the focus of its activities to Milan. There he meets Cortina, one of the crooks, for which he was sitting. Cortina leads today with his daughter Elena fraud or deception. Gerardo brings him not only for the loot, he also promotes him as an employee from Elena that his bedmate is also. Cooperation with chinotto he finished. The new team of ill-gotten furs worth 6 million lire. After that, it brings a jeweler to bring an even unpaid, a precious necklace to a church marriage and to deposit the pastor. Course, are the pastor, the groomsmen and the bride and groom, as the Gerardo and Elena act provided.

Gerardo's heart still hangs on Anna Lisa, who he hopes to recapture with an expensive fur. Because the accountant for them not but the truth is, it assumes the gift. Meanwhile, Gerardo and Elena perform a coup in which they receive from the pasta manufacturer Rebuschini 5 million and jewelry for the promise of a large order from the army. Gerardo plays alternately before the General MESCI and a telephone technician. His ingenuity goes so far as some paparazzi stay Greta Garbo, which he himself plays pretend on a beach and abzukassieren for the tip, but the jealous Anna Lisa screwed up his appearance. Elena turns away from him, but Annalisa is willing to work as his accomplice. She arranges another alleged theft trick in which a jeweler to be made ​​to deposit a necklace with the pastor Chinottos help. Only that this time, the priest and the ceremony are genuine and Gerardo the dupes: Now he is me Annalisa married. Thus ends the narration Gerardo his criminal career. The alleged con artists are now recognizable as a police inspector, arrests him and takes him off. As soon as she left the house, said the EU Commissioner out as an accomplice Gerardo, who thus creates a break in married life. You leave for London, where they seize with a trick of the crown jewels.

A landmark of the Italian comedy film

The Thief was the first collaboration of Dino Risi and Vittorio Gassman, who turned 15 films together. Gassman had already made in previous years on television a name as an expert in transformations. In the master thief, he leads his comic skills in fact present in a one-man show. Not counting The basic role as Gerardo, it assumes 16 identities. His Gerardo sets depending on the identity, which he designed in a fraud, another Italian dialect one. This emphasizes Gerardo's virtuosity and again makes it clear that the character is an actor. In the scene in which he recites in prison from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, he parodies his own work as a serious stage actor. Risi caught in a master thief, the subtle irony in the behavior of melodramatic figures. With this figure drawing and the episodic drama he created a style that was groundbreaking for the Commedia all'italiana the coming years. The tried formula he found in many successful comedies application, and he himself, she perfected further, among other things in his films love with sharp bends (1962 ) and I mostri (1963).

The production played a 571 million lire. The contemporary Italian critics estimated that the film instead of the popular grotesque comedy had a more elevated, subtle humor, and admired gas Mans versatility. The filmdienst noted in 1962 that the film has a questionable sympathetic view of engaging the " grandeur of Trickery ". However, this was not taken seriously: "It is a contrived for the amusement, played with Italian weightlessness and without psychological abysses history. " Vittorio Gassman prove his acting versatility. 1978 discussed Positif the master thief as a " rediscovery", which is the less handle a satire rather than a farce. The narrative structure is simple, yet powerful, and Gassman play with disconcerting ease. Jean Tulard (2005) described the comedy as amusing and highlighted the number of gas Mans transformations.

1960 in film Mario Cecchi Gori Film score Massimo Dallamano Dorian Gray (actress) Furio Scarpelli Positif (magazine)
230889
de