A brilliant film; all three leads are just magnifico and Monica Vitti never looked better. Vitti, Mastroianni and Giannini in one film! Sharp treatment of un amour fou. Had never heard of the film before I recently saw it at a festival of restored films at MoMA in New York--what a terrific surprise, a genuine treat, funny and dark film about obsession. I doubt it could ever have been made in the US unfortunately; can't think of any American directors who could handle this successfully. Mastroianni shows his great range. If you love Italian film, see it soon! Now I'm going to see any other Ettore Scola films I can find or haven't seen yet.
15 Reviews
Lost in Translation?
boblipton1 September 2018
The fact that Paul Frees seems to do all the men's voices except for Marcello Mastroianni's and Giancarlo Giannini's seems to add a certain sameness to all the other men in the dubbed version of this film. Mastroianni is a communist bricklayer in love with Monica Vitti and she with him. He's best friends with Giannini, a Communist pizza maker, who's in love with Monica Vitti and she with him. It's like a dirty joke about them commies, they share everything. Except being human, they can't. It drives everyone crazy and the movie is very funny.
There seems to be enormous amounts of real subtextual commentary lost in translation. Mastroianni has his middle left finger in a sling throughout the movie, and is occasionally found on trash heaps. Given that his character's name is "Oreste" I think there's a reference to the classical legend, but it's not the Homeric, Pindaric, Sophoclean versions, but the bogus Robert Graves Year-King, fighting over Monica Vitti. Mastroianni does have flies buzzing around him a lot, indicating he's the Old King.
Given three screenwriters, including Age and Scarpelli, and Ettore Scola directing (he had given Vitti her first screen role almost two decades earlier), there is obviously a lot in this movie that is both precisely of its time and of its place, ill suited to the sort of random translation that an Italian sex comedy got in the 1970s. Unless someone is willing to go back and do a more careful translation, there's little more than a funny and bizarre comedy here. However it certainly is that.
There seems to be enormous amounts of real subtextual commentary lost in translation. Mastroianni has his middle left finger in a sling throughout the movie, and is occasionally found on trash heaps. Given that his character's name is "Oreste" I think there's a reference to the classical legend, but it's not the Homeric, Pindaric, Sophoclean versions, but the bogus Robert Graves Year-King, fighting over Monica Vitti. Mastroianni does have flies buzzing around him a lot, indicating he's the Old King.
Given three screenwriters, including Age and Scarpelli, and Ettore Scola directing (he had given Vitti her first screen role almost two decades earlier), there is obviously a lot in this movie that is both precisely of its time and of its place, ill suited to the sort of random translation that an Italian sex comedy got in the 1970s. Unless someone is willing to go back and do a more careful translation, there's little more than a funny and bizarre comedy here. However it certainly is that.
Dramma della gelosia
RaulFerreiraZem16 August 2019
Awesome movie.
I had never before watched an italian comedy but this one impressed me very much. The way that Ettore Scola deals with the tragic themes of the film is absolutely remarkable. By a use of the brechtian detachment he at first makes you laugh at horrible things such as suicide and conjugal violence while at the same time reminding you that what you are seeing is a film by constantly breaking the fourth wall and then at the end of the movie he makes the audience feel absolutely uncomfortable and guilty for indulging themselves in the humor of the film as he points out that these are not laughing matters and actual things that happen.
I also love the not monogamous undertone this one has and i can't help but thinking that the director implies that monogamy is outdated and one of the sources of violence against women. One thing that in a way validates this argument is the fact that Ettore Scola casts Monica Vitti in this, the same Monica Vitti famous for L'avventura and La notte, both films that deal with some of the same issues and always with the thought that maybe we would be better off if we renewed our morals (that by the way was sort of a obsession of Antonioni at the time, just watch his interviews).
Anyway it's a film and you can interpret it in whichever way you like to, i'm just here to say that it is a great, funny, beautifully shot, amazingly acted ( i absolutely love Monica Vitti in this), and amazingly scored and for those reasons, even if the politics in this don't interest you, you should see it regardless.
Pizza with everything.
ItalianGerry17 August 2001
This is one of the best Italian comedies ever made. Known both as A DRAMA OF JEALOUSY and THE PIZZA TRIANGLE, it is an engrossing farce about a love triangle in modern Rome. Bricklayer Marcello Mastroianni meets flower-seller Monica Vitti at a political demonstration. He decides to ditch his fat, older wife for her. All goes well until a pizza, in the shape of a heart, arrives. It is sent to the girl by a young pizza-chef, played by Giancarlo Giannini. The pizza man becomes Vitti's lover, and poor Marcello goes mad with jealousy and attempts suicide, as do each of the other two at some point in this hysterical soap opera. The three lead performers, among the best that the Italian cinema has ever had to offer, are magnificent, as is the direction and comic timing by Ettore Scola, whose DOWN AND DIRTY this would make an appropriate companion-piece to. One could call this movie "commedia all'italiana" with peppers, mushrooms, and cheese.
Enjoyable romantic comedy with pleasant acting by the greatest Italian trio : Mastroianni/Vitti/Giannini
ma-cortes2 April 2023
A three-way love affair in the Rome of the early seventies among some conflicting characters . Construction labourer Oreste (Marcello Mastroianni) who married an old, ugly woman and his young fiancee Adelaide (Monica Vitti) meet Nello Serafini (Giancarlo Giannini) , cook in a pizzeria. The pizza man becomes Vitti's lover, and poor Marcello goes crazy . Meanwhile , the lovers argue and often go to communist rallies , and enjoy the filthy beach of Ostia. This is the twisted story of a woman who was completely faithful to two men !. Will the hostile environment leave a way to jealousy?...a tender comedy !
It's a romantic comedy with full of messes , love conflicts , and carried out with nice sense and high sensibility . An unrelentingly passionate and offbeat romance , concerning a three-way love affair in the Rome of the early seventies . Magnificent performances from trio pros : Marcello Mastroianni , Monica Vitti , Giancarlo Giannini make a splendid movie well worth seeing. This is one of the best comedies played by the classic Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni , along with "Divorce Italian style" (1961), and "Marriage Italian style" (1964) . Of course , Age/Scarpelli and Ettore Scola's agreeable screenplay results in ever interesting, elaborate and sentimental situations . Although it is mosty an Italian film , it turns out to be an Italy/Spain co-production, that's why some Spanish actors appear , such as : Manuel Zarzo , Fernando Sánchez Polack, Juan Diego .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Ettore Escola in his usual style. He was a writer and director, known for A special day (1977), The family (1987), Passion of love (1981) and La Famiglia (1987). He was President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and directed one Oscar nominated performance: Marcello Mastroianni in A special day (1977). Began in films during the early 50's, starting ghostwriting for the comic actor known as Toto, writing comedies, often in conjunction with Ruggero Maccari. Director Scola's imagination stretches to light up the limited scenarios where are developing the drama. Usually his films take place on a few stages and are semi-theatrical. For example : ¨Le Bal¨(1982) uses a French dance-hall to illustrate the changes in society 2)¨Nuit of Varennes (1983) a stagecoach is the scenario where meet an unlikely group as Thomas Paine, Luis XVI and Marie Antoinette who fled from revolutionary Paris 3) ¨The family¨(1987) all take place in the family's grand old Roman flat; and of course 4)¨Una Giornata Particulare¨ or ¨A special day¨ where Loren and Mastroianni striking up a marvelous relationship into their respective apartments and at the flat roof.
It's a romantic comedy with full of messes , love conflicts , and carried out with nice sense and high sensibility . An unrelentingly passionate and offbeat romance , concerning a three-way love affair in the Rome of the early seventies . Magnificent performances from trio pros : Marcello Mastroianni , Monica Vitti , Giancarlo Giannini make a splendid movie well worth seeing. This is one of the best comedies played by the classic Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni , along with "Divorce Italian style" (1961), and "Marriage Italian style" (1964) . Of course , Age/Scarpelli and Ettore Scola's agreeable screenplay results in ever interesting, elaborate and sentimental situations . Although it is mosty an Italian film , it turns out to be an Italy/Spain co-production, that's why some Spanish actors appear , such as : Manuel Zarzo , Fernando Sánchez Polack, Juan Diego .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Ettore Escola in his usual style. He was a writer and director, known for A special day (1977), The family (1987), Passion of love (1981) and La Famiglia (1987). He was President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and directed one Oscar nominated performance: Marcello Mastroianni in A special day (1977). Began in films during the early 50's, starting ghostwriting for the comic actor known as Toto, writing comedies, often in conjunction with Ruggero Maccari. Director Scola's imagination stretches to light up the limited scenarios where are developing the drama. Usually his films take place on a few stages and are semi-theatrical. For example : ¨Le Bal¨(1982) uses a French dance-hall to illustrate the changes in society 2)¨Nuit of Varennes (1983) a stagecoach is the scenario where meet an unlikely group as Thomas Paine, Luis XVI and Marie Antoinette who fled from revolutionary Paris 3) ¨The family¨(1987) all take place in the family's grand old Roman flat; and of course 4)¨Una Giornata Particulare¨ or ¨A special day¨ where Loren and Mastroianni striking up a marvelous relationship into their respective apartments and at the flat roof.
Commedia all'italiana faces the 1970s and reaches new heights with "Pizza Triangle"
debblyst17 January 2007
This is the passionate, tragic, acid, perversely funny story of a love triangle -- at one point, almost a ménage-à-trois -- involving bricklayer Oreste (Mastroianni in one of his very best performances, a sort of grotesque version of his character in "I Compagni"), flower-seller Adelaide (isn't it time we acknowledged Monica Vitti as THE most accomplished Italian comedienne ever? And being that gorgeous didn't hurt either) and pizzaiolo Nello (Giancarlo Giannini in a star-making role). With this film, Ettore Scola proved to be the great new voice in commedia all'italiana, a deserving heir to the maestri of this great tradition (DeSica, early Fellini, Germi, Monicelli, Risi) but adding steamier sarcasm and corrosiveness in his pitiless criticism of Italian society and its conservative mores.
We, as the audience, play a very important part here: it's to us (the invisible judge of a trial) that Oreste, Adelaide and Nello present their cases in the flashbacks that shows us the different angles of their convoluted story of friendship, love, betrayal and attempted murders/ suicides, in a sort of comedic Rashomon. The expertise of Scola's writing and the charisma of the starring trio make us care a lot for those hopeless losers, so unmistakably human.
Scola achieves a very rare thing: he uses caricature, comedic clichés and grotesqueness and raises them to refined art, craftily mixing tragedy and comedy with political overtones and social satire. This is on the same level as (and is a sort of cross between) Scola's masterpieces "C'Eravamo Tanto Amati" and "Brutti Sporchi Cattivi". You can do no wrong here: this is a delight that keeps your brain working AND your laughing muscles contracting, an achievement that sounds almost paradoxical by today's moronic, puerile standards of film comedy.
We, as the audience, play a very important part here: it's to us (the invisible judge of a trial) that Oreste, Adelaide and Nello present their cases in the flashbacks that shows us the different angles of their convoluted story of friendship, love, betrayal and attempted murders/ suicides, in a sort of comedic Rashomon. The expertise of Scola's writing and the charisma of the starring trio make us care a lot for those hopeless losers, so unmistakably human.
Scola achieves a very rare thing: he uses caricature, comedic clichés and grotesqueness and raises them to refined art, craftily mixing tragedy and comedy with political overtones and social satire. This is on the same level as (and is a sort of cross between) Scola's masterpieces "C'Eravamo Tanto Amati" and "Brutti Sporchi Cattivi". You can do no wrong here: this is a delight that keeps your brain working AND your laughing muscles contracting, an achievement that sounds almost paradoxical by today's moronic, puerile standards of film comedy.
Typical Italian comedy
elo-equipamentos2 May 2017
When l watched this movie in early 1984 I' wasn't able and ready to understand how complicate is an Italian comedy at all, they talk louder, so many facial expressions, body language, whatever they are different, so that time l'd gave a low grade 4/10, now on first revisiting on DVD l've increase a little to 7.5/10, still is very low underrated by IMDb's users, well l've to confess that the movie didn't make my head, maybe a dated movie, Ettore Scola was a fine director like in Brutti, Sporchi e Cattive that is really good movie, even often of dubious taste humor!!!
Thanks for reading
Resume:
First watch: 1984 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.
Thanks for reading
Resume:
First watch: 1984 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.
my FAVORITE movie of all time
carl_axness9 April 2009
I saw this move in the early 1970's on the channel 13 Albuquerque, NM TV station afternoon movie under the title "A tale of love and jealousy" and dubbed in English. In those days and on through my 20's I kept a notebook and rated movies. This one was number one then and still is to this day for me. In effect this movie has a tragic ending and is, in reality, a tragedy, but you do not realize it until the end. For the second showing I arranged a group of my friends to come watch and we all laughed throughout the entire movie until the end, in which a lot of things come together and you realize the underlying sadness. In particular, I remember the close-ups of Marcello Mastrioninni addressing the audience (the viewer) explaining his actions throughout the movie - an excellent effect, the reason for which becomes clear at the end of the movie.
I have suggested it to our local theater a number of times, but it may no longer be available in English. Too bad.
I have suggested it to our local theater a number of times, but it may no longer be available in English. Too bad.
pizza toppings
SnoopyStyle20 March 2023
Adelaide (Monica Vitti) kisses unconscious bricklayer Oreste (Marcello Mastroianni) on a pile of rubble. He's angry at the garbage piles in the city. She's obsessed with him. Pizza maker Nello (Giancarlo Giannini) is obsessed with her. It's a love triangle.
I really like the surrealism early in the movie. It's a little weird that it turns into threesome and then it gets serious with the jealousy. This did win a few European awards. It's a pizza with widely different toppings. It's never safe. It's a farce. I'm not laughing that much, but it is fascinating. Her suicide attempt is kind of funny. I was never sure of how this was going to end.
I really like the surrealism early in the movie. It's a little weird that it turns into threesome and then it gets serious with the jealousy. This did win a few European awards. It's a pizza with widely different toppings. It's never safe. It's a farce. I'm not laughing that much, but it is fascinating. Her suicide attempt is kind of funny. I was never sure of how this was going to end.
Masterpiece of the time, not sure it aged well
dierregi28 August 2022
To fully understand this movie one must be well into Italian history or Italian (like me). I am of a younger generation but vaguely remember the 70 and the social and political issues that are the background to this ill-fated triangle.
Adelaide is the naive florist who fells in love with two men, something scandalous at a time when divorce was illegal in Italy. Adelaide is played by the wonderful Monica Vitti, the most talented actress of her generation and an extremely good-looking woman. Her Adelaide is a confused, passionate woman who doesn't know how to handle her feelings for the two men, Oreste and Nello.
Oreste is the older guy, played by Mastroianni, a total looser living in squalor with an older wife and finding in Adelaide's love something totally new and devastating. Nello is younger, but passionate about everything and, like the other two, unable to control his feelings.
The story takes place in the degraded, dirty, polluted Roman outskirts and it is deliciously sarcastic but also tender towards its hapless protagonists. The rest of the cast is also top quality, from the vulgar, rich butcher, also in love with Adelaide, to Adelaide's sister, the God-fearing prostitute.
It's true that the characters shout a good deal and some of the dialogues must be difficult to follow for foreigners. Also, I don't know about the quality of dubbing, since I obviously watched the original which is totally worth the effort because of Monica Vitti soulful, raspy voice and the wonderful dialect spoken by Nello.
The passing of time has made the political sideline of the Communist party quite outdated and people living on the fringe, nowadays are just obnoxious and there is nothing tender about them.
Adelaide is the naive florist who fells in love with two men, something scandalous at a time when divorce was illegal in Italy. Adelaide is played by the wonderful Monica Vitti, the most talented actress of her generation and an extremely good-looking woman. Her Adelaide is a confused, passionate woman who doesn't know how to handle her feelings for the two men, Oreste and Nello.
Oreste is the older guy, played by Mastroianni, a total looser living in squalor with an older wife and finding in Adelaide's love something totally new and devastating. Nello is younger, but passionate about everything and, like the other two, unable to control his feelings.
The story takes place in the degraded, dirty, polluted Roman outskirts and it is deliciously sarcastic but also tender towards its hapless protagonists. The rest of the cast is also top quality, from the vulgar, rich butcher, also in love with Adelaide, to Adelaide's sister, the God-fearing prostitute.
It's true that the characters shout a good deal and some of the dialogues must be difficult to follow for foreigners. Also, I don't know about the quality of dubbing, since I obviously watched the original which is totally worth the effort because of Monica Vitti soulful, raspy voice and the wonderful dialect spoken by Nello.
The passing of time has made the political sideline of the Communist party quite outdated and people living on the fringe, nowadays are just obnoxious and there is nothing tender about them.
When love blinds and becomes a reason for life
panlenny3 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I would consider the film by maestro Ettore Scola a real "popular tragedy" because of its protagonists, namely: Oreste, a humble and mature mason, Adelaide, a young and charming flower girl, and Nello, a young and dynamic pizza maker; and of the setting from which these characters come, that is a frenetic and popular Rome taken by the communist fervor followed by the working masses who supported the PCI (Italian Communist Party). The actor's interpretations can in no way be criticized; Mastroianni won in 1970 a recognition at the Cannes Film Festival for this feature film, interpreting an apparently simple, rude and popular character, but who in the end will prove mentally unstable, like the good soul of Monica Vitti, who has recently, unfortunately, left us, does with the his Adelaide, perpetually motionless at the love crossroads, and Gianluca Giannini who plays the role of the young Tuscan pizza chef Nello very well, first friend of his adversary in love, then bitter enemy. The pathos is palpable in all three characters; Orestes, although he can be considered a rude or a Brutus, remains faithful to his beloved until the last moment by killing her, like herself, in a paranoid moment of a speech made in a pizzeria, where he met Nello, who, out of mad love, attempts suicide with rat poison. The most obvious pathos is obviously that of Adelaide, perpetually tormented by the choice and who even tries to commit suicide with gas, failing in her attempt to put an end to the pains of love. It is interesting how in less than two hours a story started from an end point was completely recovered thanks to the interventions of almost all the surrounding characters, who gave their own testimony of the story.
In short, a film of other times and which may seem too dispassionate, but a good film because it shows us the real Italy, the one that perhaps only our older uncles or, certainly, our grandparents have lived consciously, and also because stories are also popular ones and about love topics.
In short, a film of other times and which may seem too dispassionate, but a good film because it shows us the real Italy, the one that perhaps only our older uncles or, certainly, our grandparents have lived consciously, and also because stories are also popular ones and about love topics.
English dubbed version not great
panamarak31 August 2018
Try to stay away from English dubbed version, after watching many Mastroianni movies this was just weird and seemed pretty bad, although I could see the Italian language version likely much better. Especially the dubbed Mastroianni voice doesn't sound even close to his. Much lower voice - just makes it really annoying.
Almost lost early 70's Ettore Scola classic - 2 English titles "A Drama of Jealousy" & "Pizza Triangle"
retroprods21 October 2011
I loved seeing this at MoMA on 10/20/11. We first meet Monica Vitti & Marcello Mastriani at the closing down of a small ramshackle street fair/carnival in an ugly empty lot in Rome. She is urging the ride operator to give a longer experience & he has drank a bit too much after helping to tear down some of the exhibits & falls asleep awaking to Monica kissing on him. A romance begins amongst piles of plastic garbage & flies while he continues to go home to a wife who appears to be his mother. Flashbacks to recreating a crime for detectives take us back to the florid romantic affair complete with lush orchestrations featuring that electronic harpsichord so popular during this early 70's time period. What follows is a charming absurdly funny at times interesting story told in fascinating narrative involving characters turning to talk to us in the audience in order to inform us of different aspects of character & story that we otherwise wouldn't know - sometimes in theatrical spotlights - other times in extreme close-up. I particularly liked some of the sped up film & over amplified sound effects, esp. physical hits which gives the film that "slapstick" crazy kind of absurd playfulness. Other online reviews can give further insights into this enjoyable piece. I would say that this one is prime pickings for remake since it's distribution has been inconsistent & spotty at best.
Who's loving who(?)
kosmasp10 July 2022
No pun intended - do we have love to give for more than one person? Also is the movie quite modern, all things considered? I mean a woman being in love with two men is not something shocking or new nowadays, I can only imagine how it was perceived back then though.
Nowadays you have all sorts of movies and novels that have that dilemma. Take Twilight for example - one of the better known ones I reckon. It is always one female and two males who are involved. While that is way more dramatic and action packed, this right here is more of a comedy and social commentary. With quite the stellar performances from all involved.
There is innocence but also awareness - and a lot of love to be given. Not easy to watch for some, but light enough overall I'd say.
Nowadays you have all sorts of movies and novels that have that dilemma. Take Twilight for example - one of the better known ones I reckon. It is always one female and two males who are involved. While that is way more dramatic and action packed, this right here is more of a comedy and social commentary. With quite the stellar performances from all involved.
There is innocence but also awareness - and a lot of love to be given. Not easy to watch for some, but light enough overall I'd say.
Very Broad and Over The Top Comedy Doesn't Have The Characters To Make You Love It But Is Fine Enough For A Look
mbs21 October 2011
The Pizza Triangle is a cute enough Italian romantic comedy with some really outlandish touches around the center and a nicely scuzzy character played by the normally smooth Marcello Mastriani. These last two things would probably be trimmed tho (including its ending) would it have been a bigger hit in Italy and then remade for America so maybe its good it wasn't remade...but then again most people would have also heard of this and it'd be much more widely available to watch today as well so maybe that's not a good thing then.
Monica Vitti wildly overplays the fun loving/fast living woman at the center of the love triangle. She spots Marcello Mastriani not as the handsome man you normally see but as a drunk guy passed out on the street and instantly falls in love with him (i know but its a movie!) each one is sure they've seen each other before in a shop and were attracted to each other then so when she spots him laying in that gutter he's certainly pleased to wake up and see her standing over him. Unfortunately for her--he ends up being a wildly jealous boar who is prone to fits of both the drinking and temper kind and is soon turning her attentions to the swooning pizza maker in the little eatery that Mastriani keeps taking her to. The pizza maker played by a rather youngish Giancarlo Gianni woos her right under Marcello's nose with a slice of pizza in the shape of a heart---its a very cute scene when Vitti gets the heart shaped slice of pizza looks up and sees Gianni staring at her--its one of those meet cute scenes that would totally be at home in a big Hollywood romance (which is why i'm surprised this wasn't redone quite honestly) and while Vitti and her pizza maker start cuddling up Marcello starts questioning himself and his ability to hold a relationship and generally being a mope--except for when he's throwing one of his fits. Eventually he and the pizza chef (who already knew each other cause well Marcello eats his food) decide to try and share Monica Vitti--and as anyone who's ever seen Vitti in her prime can attest--half a Vitti is better then no Vitti at all.
The attempts at Jules and Jilm like comedy don't really mesh with the kind of angry, self righteous character that had been Mastriani's character up to that point, and you can pretty much guess where the film goes once the 2 guys decide to try and share Vitti. The movie doesn't quite live up to the first 5 or 10 minutes as a whole. When you see that sequence of Vitti at the fair and spotting Mastriani and then Mastriani seeing her--you think OK this is going to be very well filmed and is going to be passionate as all get out. It doesn't really pan out that way and not because of Mastriani's rather bitter character--its more because the film's attempts at humor are just too over the top to take seriously---Mastriani and Vitti share a fly together (mastriani's character is so filthy at the beginning that he keeps doing battle with the same fly--who Vitti then calls "our fly" and indeed whenever she starts to feel Mastriani's presence--you hear the fly buzzing on the soundtrack and sometimes see it actually flying around the screen as well--its a neat touch but one that's also irritating the more times it happens) Vitti's character herself is so over the top and so fickle--i personally stopped caring about which of the 2 suitors she's going to end up with long before she actually makes a decision (and then promptly changes her mind a couple more times for good measure) The film was enjoyable enough--its certainly pretty to look at for the most part--but the character's behavior and the fact that everything is done in these big broad strokes makes the rest of the film not as good as it could've been....the way Vitti carries on i would've thought that this was a role that Sophia Loren had turned down quite honestly--it wouldn't be hard to see why Loren would of turned this one down--the character that Vitti's playing is nowhere near the head strong, self sufficient larger then life characters that Loren had come to fame playing, and that's part of the main problem of the movie itself.
Monica Vitti wildly overplays the fun loving/fast living woman at the center of the love triangle. She spots Marcello Mastriani not as the handsome man you normally see but as a drunk guy passed out on the street and instantly falls in love with him (i know but its a movie!) each one is sure they've seen each other before in a shop and were attracted to each other then so when she spots him laying in that gutter he's certainly pleased to wake up and see her standing over him. Unfortunately for her--he ends up being a wildly jealous boar who is prone to fits of both the drinking and temper kind and is soon turning her attentions to the swooning pizza maker in the little eatery that Mastriani keeps taking her to. The pizza maker played by a rather youngish Giancarlo Gianni woos her right under Marcello's nose with a slice of pizza in the shape of a heart---its a very cute scene when Vitti gets the heart shaped slice of pizza looks up and sees Gianni staring at her--its one of those meet cute scenes that would totally be at home in a big Hollywood romance (which is why i'm surprised this wasn't redone quite honestly) and while Vitti and her pizza maker start cuddling up Marcello starts questioning himself and his ability to hold a relationship and generally being a mope--except for when he's throwing one of his fits. Eventually he and the pizza chef (who already knew each other cause well Marcello eats his food) decide to try and share Monica Vitti--and as anyone who's ever seen Vitti in her prime can attest--half a Vitti is better then no Vitti at all.
The attempts at Jules and Jilm like comedy don't really mesh with the kind of angry, self righteous character that had been Mastriani's character up to that point, and you can pretty much guess where the film goes once the 2 guys decide to try and share Vitti. The movie doesn't quite live up to the first 5 or 10 minutes as a whole. When you see that sequence of Vitti at the fair and spotting Mastriani and then Mastriani seeing her--you think OK this is going to be very well filmed and is going to be passionate as all get out. It doesn't really pan out that way and not because of Mastriani's rather bitter character--its more because the film's attempts at humor are just too over the top to take seriously---Mastriani and Vitti share a fly together (mastriani's character is so filthy at the beginning that he keeps doing battle with the same fly--who Vitti then calls "our fly" and indeed whenever she starts to feel Mastriani's presence--you hear the fly buzzing on the soundtrack and sometimes see it actually flying around the screen as well--its a neat touch but one that's also irritating the more times it happens) Vitti's character herself is so over the top and so fickle--i personally stopped caring about which of the 2 suitors she's going to end up with long before she actually makes a decision (and then promptly changes her mind a couple more times for good measure) The film was enjoyable enough--its certainly pretty to look at for the most part--but the character's behavior and the fact that everything is done in these big broad strokes makes the rest of the film not as good as it could've been....the way Vitti carries on i would've thought that this was a role that Sophia Loren had turned down quite honestly--it wouldn't be hard to see why Loren would of turned this one down--the character that Vitti's playing is nowhere near the head strong, self sufficient larger then life characters that Loren had come to fame playing, and that's part of the main problem of the movie itself.
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