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.