 "We could all afford to be more Italian." | 2009-08-26 |
| - Reviewed By caponsacchi |
Ostensibly a send-up of the French caper classic, "Rififi," "Big Deal on Madonna Street" actually IS a big deal. Personally, I found plenty of humor in the leak-proof, exhilarating predecessor, so the ironic meaning of "Big Deal" seems off the mark if the intention is to mock the childish, self-destructive games of professional jewel thieves. "Madonna" is big in a more literal sense--physical, outrageous comedy that nevertheless manages to distinguish each of its unforgettable characters, balancing slapstick and surprise with humanism and pathos.
A film like this, moreover, could be made only by an Italian, or an Italian-American such as Frank Capra. It's as distant from the Teutonic Hamlet-like brooding of Bergman or the achingly, ceremonial slow pace of Kurosawa or Ozu as you can get. And it makes American comedies and buddy pictures, at least since "Animal House" and "Butch Cassidy," seem like big klutzes by comparison. From Capra to Fellini, Italian cinematic sensibility is essentially positive, upbeat, communal and comic, even if, as Rossellini and de Sica remind us, the social order is subject to the iron-clad materialistic challenges of living (just as the isolated protagonist we find in other national cinema is bound to a code of some noble personal order essential to self-actualization). No cinema--not even Russian--seems more open to Marxist theoretical approaches than Italian (it's Bedford Falls, not George Bailey, that proves the true hero--or antagonist, as the case may be).
There's an additional reason to see this film as more than a send-up, merely, of a predecessor movie. "Big Deal," like "Riffi," has a moral and a message, which comes down to something like "Never give into the machine let alone become one yourself." Like both Chaplin and Keaton, whose best films are also the result of painstaking, meticulous mechanical engineering (both filmmakers go for broke to 1. mechanize the human, as in the famous conveyor belt scene of "Modern Times," and to 2. humanize the mechanical, as in the tarnished but never defeated Confederate locomotive run by Buster). Mario Monicetti emulates the two founding fathers of film comedy in his attention to the details of editing, mis en scene, and acting. And he recalls both the essentially comic vision and communal emphases of his fellow countryman, Frank Capra, in his construction of a little society that is (more or less) functional, "democratic" and, above all, living!
Trust the French to be existential about the inescapable and perennial problem of greed and its empty deserts; the Italians, on the other hand, take it more in stride. No tragic potential here but plenty of misfortune--along with sadness that this vital and vibrant community, even though a dubious lot of thieves, in the end simply can't hold it together. But it's important to note that they retain their "integrity"--they're not about to submit to the indignity of "work" (a cake walk compared to all they've suffered while trying to make their fortunes the "easy," or illicit, way). Like "The Bicycle Thief" they are ultimately out of work, not to mention friends; the difference is that this rag-tag motley crew with a not-so-magnificent obsession is too shielded from the Marxist reality (that seems to occupy the margins of every Italian film) to understand "why" their failed caper should be a big deal. A disappointment, to be sure. Yet the viewer leaves with the feeling that it's all simply another day's work--or, more accurately, play--in the lives of Falstaff and company. It's not Henry V: it's neither the end of Falstaff nor the triumph of the social-economic forces that will eventually lead to his dismissal. But it's a heck of a good time for viewers of any ethnicity, race, class, or gender.
[As the above paragraph suggests, "Big Deal on Madonna Street" demands a sequel. And it gets it 20+ years later, once again featuring Marcello Mastroianni. But if it's a revisionary send-up, or parody, that you're looking for, try De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" followed immediately by Maurizio Nichetti's "The Icicle Thief"--two films that are a half century and worlds apart yet, upon reflection, offer a comparison that suggests the post-modern milieu of the present is not necessarily superior to the depressed post-World War Italy captured by De Sica's neo-realist classic.] |
| |
| ""Stealing is a serious profession. You need serious people, not people like you."" | 2009-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By charlesdickin |
If you're a fan of French caper films like RIFIFI or BOB LE FLAMBEUR then you have to check out BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET. A small time career criminal is on the verge of the job of a lifetime when he's pinched for trying to steal a car. The window of opportunity on his caper is short so if he doesn't get out of jail quick the whole thing is blown. With the help of his small gang of criminals they come up with a plan. Thing is they're all as bumbling as he is.
I don't want to ruin it by saying too much, but I enjoyed this film from beginning to end. There was never a pause in the stupidity and all of the characters were well defined with their own personalities and quirks. It's not a laugh riot, but well worth watching. Also the picture on the Criterion DVD was really nice.
If you enjoyed Woody Allen's SMALL TIME CROOKS then a lot of this film will feel familiar because he borrowed quite a bit from this story. Also one of the crooks is played by the great Marcello Mastroianni who three years later would be the lead in one of my favorite comedies DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE. |
| |
 "The real deal, will make you laugh for sure" | 2009-04-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2Y6VBZS2E4HPX |
I didn't know about the movie which this one parodied - I only saw that from the other reviews. But one thing I can say for sure: this movie will make you laugh. You don't need to know the culture, and you don't need to know the subtler aspects of how it relates to other films of that period and country. Just watch the heart- breakingly, funnily inept crooks in action.
Highly recommended. Of course, it's worth watching many times, and I plan to see it again after watching the related movies. |
| |
| "A Comedy of Errors" | 2008-05-04 |
| - Reviewed By keehn9 |
I might be stretching it a bit to give "Big Deal on Madonna Street" a 5 star rating but I rounded it to the nearest score. I did so because of the understated quality of the humor in the movie. I was rather easily led along the story line which got more and more complicated as each minor difficulty resulted in another misdirection. By the time the movie was in full swing, the twists, turns and obstacles kept things hopping.
The acting and directing were very good. There are some familiar names and a lot of new actors (to an American audience). The beauty of the movie is the seriousness of the players contrating to the inanity of the script. This is a movie that movie lovers ought to see at least once in their lives; just for the fun of it. |
| |
| "Big Deal on Madonna Street" | 2007-06-27 |
| - Reviewed By jfarr02 |
| A brilliant spoof of caper films like Jules Dassin's "Rififi," Monicelli's manic romp is crowd-pleasing in every way, thanks to hilarious performances from Gassman, Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, and the rest of the ebullient cast. Monicelli focuses as much on his sad-sack characters as he does the details of the heist, and it's impossible not to find these inept robbers--who drill a hole through the wrong wall--completely endearing. Mastroianni, as buffoonish photographer turned car thief Tiberio, is a gas, even up against fabled funnyman Toto (as a scene-stealing, semi-retired burglar). Watch, too, for a young Claudia Cardinale. Filmed on location in Italy, "Madonna" was remade as "Crackers" in 1984, minus the uproarious laughs. |
| |
| "Madcap petty criminal hijinks in postwar Italy" | 2007-06-01 |
| - Reviewed By dalittrell |
Tall, handsome Vittorio Gassman stars as Peppe, the womanizing glass-jawed palooka who, along with several keystone criminals, stumblebum their way to...not much. Also featured in this comedy by Italian film legend Mario Monicelli are Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, who would go on to fame and fortune, but here have only modest parts. Mastroianni, who would later star in La Dolce Vita (1960), Il Bell'Antonio (1960), Divorzio all'italiana (1961) and many others, plays Tiberio a photographer without a camera, whose wife is in jail, who has a constantly crying baby to take care of with one of his arms up in a sling with a board under it. Cardinale, who would go on to become one of Italy's most famous beauty bombshells, plays Carmelina, a young woman locked up by her brother in order to protect her honor until she marries.
Also featured are Carla Gravina (Nicoletta), a very pretty 17-year-old who went on to only a modest career, and the veteran Toto who plays the incompetent safecracker, Dante Cruciani. Notable is Renato Salvatori as Mario who wins Carmelina's heart, Memmo Carotenuto as Cosimo who fails at purse-snatching, and Carlo Pisacane as Capannelle who looks like an aged member of the Bowery Boys.
The story begins when Cosimo is caught trying to steal a car. In prison he learns of a nice sting that he can pull off if only he can get out of jail. So he tries to hire a scapegoat to confess to the crime so he can be freed. Finally Peppe, after getting knocked out in the first round of a prize fight, decides he needs the money. However when he goes to confess, the police see through the ruse and throw him in jail without releasing Cosimo. But Peppe does get out, and he and the motley assortment of would-be jewel thieves plot their crime amid hilarious missteps, pratfalls and mass confusion as they break into an apartment that they have the keys for to knock down a wall (which wall?) to gain access to a safe they probably can't crack. Will they succeed despite all the mishaps?
There is a sense of both recovery and poverty in post World War II Italy in the backdrops and the asides and the circumstances of the characters that lend to this comedy a realistic edge. We see the petty thievery as an understandable and almost acceptable way of life, at least for the time being. Mario always buys or steals three identical things for his "mother" who turns out to be three women who raised him at the orphanage. Tiberio has to sell his camera and then steal one. Skinny Capannelle is always eating. And in the jail several men share one cigarette while they blow the smoke into a bottle to capture it so that others might get a little nicotine as well! (Sure, and I have some gum I can recycle.)
The Criterion Collection DVD that I viewed has excellent yellow subtitles, but some of the lines come so fast and with such comedic as well as denotative intent that it is easy to miss something. Knowing Italian would help!
See this for all the "bumbling criminal" movies that it both imitated and inspired, and for the fine work by the talented cast. |
| |
Expedited Available
