Carlo Verdone
Un sacco bello

What can be said about "Un sacco bello", the directorial debut of Carlo Verdone? First of all … it's really beautiful. If you stop crying from laughter, I'll ask you another question: why is "Un sacco bello" really beautiful? What could there possibly be in this sack? There's a whole lot, a bit of everything, the Italy of that period (late '70s – early '80s), with its caricatures, with its almost stereotypical characters. But, despite having our peculiarities (mostly negative), we are all in the same sack, on the same boat. The big kid Leo rightly tells the man at the window who keeps complaining: "Fai presto te a dì aò embè là, alla finestra, calmo. Te ce vorrei vedere io a combatte con la vita, co’ e strisce, con l’olio, coi pompelmi, con mi madre. Aò, dice". It's easy, as a spectator, to pronounce sarcastic or skeptical exclamations. But those who do things know well what it means. This is the great message of the film, which the Roman director and actor wants to convey. It's clear how everyone ends up being deaf to others' needs, indifferent to others' personalities (the episode of the hippie son is exemplary, with all that succession of tragicomic figures, too caught up in their own convictions to understand the legitimacy behind someone else's choice or non-choice).

It's Ferragosto, three different lives meet, by chance, just for a moment. They could be ours. The world of "Un sacco bello" is yes confined to the Urbe and its vicinity, but it can extend to the whole world. Who knows if a Spanish girl, in need of help to find her way around Rome, almost manages to awaken the man inside the big kid? Who knows if the long-distance meeting between a father and a son, divided by incommunicability, isn't an opportunity to reconsider their beliefs, even if just for a moment?
In the night, a bang echoes. What does it represent? A return to reality, perhaps, or a device, between the serious and the funny, to witness the different reactions of the characters? After simply closing the windows, Enzo continues the call with a potential travel companion, to keep him company; Leo, after the Spanish girl has left, resumes his previous, monotonous life, at the mercy of his mother; Ruggero (the hippie) returns to the community near Città della Pieve, together with his "girlfriend".

Verdone plays the various characters and self-directs in an extraordinary way, with a verve and complete immersion, having an impressive background, mainly due to the sketches he performed on television, especially for the program Non Stop (1978-1979).
Mario Brega, who had worked with Sergio Leone and other great directors of Italian cinema, among whom were Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, Lucio Fulci, Steno, and Nanni Loy, as a great character actor, is chosen by Verdone because of his strong Roman accent: their first meeting happened precisely thanks to Leone. Brega's interpretation is outstanding, in the role of Ruggero's father, because he isn't just any actor, but an actor extraordinairrrrrre (spread your arms wide!).

"Un sacco bello" is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of Italian comedy cinema, and Verdone won't be able to give it a worthy follow-up. The subsequent "Bianco rosso e verdone" (1981) is in the same vein; "Borotalco" (1982), which leans more towards the sentimental, and is not structured in episodes, is a step forward, but even here, it is a fleeting moment, because with "Acqua e Sapone" the following year he will repeat the formula.

Rating: 8/10