Dino Risi
Il Sorpasso

Every good film enthusiast can have personal fixations. In my case, only on the day of Ferragosto, I allow myself to rewatch the film "Il sorpasso" by Dino Risi, perhaps adhering to that Latin maxim that says "semel in anno licet insanire". Here there is nothing harmful as it is a landmark film of Italian cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. And certainly much has been discussed about the work over these decades (the film was released in December 1962), favoring historical and sociological analyses, seeing in the film an enlightening snapshot of how Italy was (and consequently the Italians) in the early 60s of the economic boom. But, without retracing the salient features of the plot of a work all too well known to most, I limit myself to proposing here two interpretative keys for a film tied to existentialist themes.

For the first one, I start from a passage of a text from one of the last songs of John Lennon (specifically "Beautiful Boy") where it says "Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans." Undoubtedly one of the best definitions of the concept of existence (I'd say striking as in the most typical Lennon style) and well explained in Risi's film. Indeed, the young shy law student Roberto Mariani (perfectly played by Jean Louis Trintignant) is preparing for an exam at home on a lazy Ferragosto morning in Rome, and he would expect anything but the arrival of an intrusive and idle Bruno Cortona (unforgettable Vittorio Gassman). Knowing how this unforeseen intrusion into his life will end, we might doubt that the young student would have agreed to follow him on a reckless journey, in a sports car, from Rome to Castiglioncello and beyond. But no one has divinatory powers over the future, and Cortona's character has the magnetic and theatrical strength to drag people of weaker character into his wanderings and reckless adventures.

The second point of reflection starts instead from a concept expressed by philosopher Martin Heidegger who, in his most important text titled "Being and Time", argues that life is nothing but preparation for death. The concept, so blunt, has also been interpreted at a cinematic level if one just remembers an unforgettable work by Ingmar Bergman such as "The Seventh Seal", with a chess game between a medieval knight and Death (a pretext for scholarly debates in film clubs...). And the great theme of the dialectic between Life and Death is found in "Il Sorpasso", even though the maritime and sunny setting on an Italian Ferragosto might distract us.

But, precisely by witnessing the picaresque events of the two protagonists, the weight of the themes touched during the journey in those 24 hours does not escape notice. There is the fleetingness of time and earthly events that make us regret the past that does not return and, even if it did, each of us would discover themselves profoundly changed. Above all, however, one cannot help but wonder if the two characters, in light of the Heideggerian concept, might seem vaguely aware of their mortal condition and are in a certain sense ready to die. In the case of student Mariani, it is obvious that, due to his young age, there is no preparation for the great transition. On the contrary, the fact of following Cortona on this Ferragosto journey (unfortunately the last one) allows him to begin to see existence from other perspectives and to open his eyes a bit to the world around him, outside the study books.

Instead, the character of Cortona, perhaps due to the greater age factor compared to the young man and having lived as an adult the preceding war years, can take on an attitude of defiance towards Death. In his brazenness and swagger (as if he were the embodiment of a futurist approach), he postures as a gambler towards the Grim Reaper and manages to get away, in the end, by the skin of his teeth (but he will carry on his conscience the life of a young man who could have escaped longer).

In short, when it is said that destiny can be cynical and cheating, one is not wrong. And for any doubts, just go and rewatch a classic like "Il sorpasso".