L'Homme aux cent visages
Dino Risi
Gerardo, a simple employee, lives an ordinary life with his wife. Gerardo starts recounting his life and his own scams to a man who tries to cheat them. This is because before his very ordinary life he too was a great con artist. He starts to tell the tale of the tricks of the trade he had learned over the years.
With : Vittorio Gassman, Anna Maria Ferrero, Peppino de Filippo, Mario Carotenuto, Alberto Bonucci
Screenplay : Ettore Scola, Sandro Continenza, Ruggero Maccari
Image : Massimo Dallamano
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Music : Pippo Barzizza
Screenplay : Ettore Scola, Sandro Continenza, Ruggero Maccari
Image : Massimo Dallamano
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Music : Pippo Barzizza
Production : Maxima Film, S.G.C.
Distribution: Carlotta
Distribution: Carlotta
The audience success of this film comes from the hilarious performance by Vittorio Gassman, who throws himself into this role of the former "king of the con men". Used to playing this character on stage, he transfers it perfectly to the big screen, for the first time under the direction of the master of the commedia all'italiana. Acknowledged as one of his best roles it could be seen as a sort of recursion of the career of this "showman" (the literal translation of the "mattatore" of the title) of the silver screen, who knows all the tricks of the trade. But the importance of the supporting cast must not be underestimated, including the excellent Peppino de Filippo and Anna Maria Ferrero. Il mattatore (Love and Larceny) was made during a very prolific period for Dino Risi because in the same year he also made Poveri milionari (Poor Millionaires) and Il vedovo (The Widower).