Il Sorpasso (1962, directed by Dino Risi) is the most Italian movie I’ve seen in a while, by which I mean it’s overflowing with a certain kind of idealized ebullient pastoral Italianness.
I wasn't ready for the ending. Then, T.E. Lawrence popped into my head because of the ending, and a little bit because of the year the movies were made.
I think very laterally - so this probably won't make sense.
Lawrence of Arabia starts with his death. He swerves on his motorcycle, which he also liked to ride fast, to avoid hitting people, crashes and dies. Lawrence was a bigger than life character, but we don't know that yet. We see the crash without context, but after his campaign, we can feel the loss with the questions we carried from the beginning.
The Il Sorpasso connection for me was a feeling tied thing, that opening Lawrence scene popped into my head after Il Sorpasso ended. It's a reversal. With Roberto, we grow to look forward to his life and it's cut short. With Bruno, we feel his invincibility, the crash is a shock because he is deft, we don't expect him to get caught out at all, even though we are waiting for it through most of the film. He keeps slipping away, but Roberto can't. He's been caught by his humanity.
That connection definitely makes sense. And yes, it's Bruno who always seems to be on the edge of self-destruction, but he is never punished like we would expect in a moralistic story.
Intriguing. Yes. Bruno attends to Roberto, but generally doesn't seem moved by him, until the end, right before the crash. If Roberto did get under his skin, that could cloud Bruno's mind enough for him to make a mistake driving. On the other hand, Risi and Sonego may be trying to tell us there is no way to punish Bruno. At the end, we can't tell for sure if Bruno's more broken up over his wrecked Lancia or Roberto's death. I'm leaning towards the Lancia, based on how he talked about it. Bruno's expression shows us he feels a loss, but he doesn't run down to check on his friend. Though, I could be persuaded otherwise.
A fantastic, underrated film.
spoiler alert!
I wasn't ready for the ending. Then, T.E. Lawrence popped into my head because of the ending, and a little bit because of the year the movies were made.
I'm curious what made you think of Lawrence?
I think very laterally - so this probably won't make sense.
Lawrence of Arabia starts with his death. He swerves on his motorcycle, which he also liked to ride fast, to avoid hitting people, crashes and dies. Lawrence was a bigger than life character, but we don't know that yet. We see the crash without context, but after his campaign, we can feel the loss with the questions we carried from the beginning.
The Il Sorpasso connection for me was a feeling tied thing, that opening Lawrence scene popped into my head after Il Sorpasso ended. It's a reversal. With Roberto, we grow to look forward to his life and it's cut short. With Bruno, we feel his invincibility, the crash is a shock because he is deft, we don't expect him to get caught out at all, even though we are waiting for it through most of the film. He keeps slipping away, but Roberto can't. He's been caught by his humanity.
That connection definitely makes sense. And yes, it's Bruno who always seems to be on the edge of self-destruction, but he is never punished like we would expect in a moralistic story.
Intriguing. Yes. Bruno attends to Roberto, but generally doesn't seem moved by him, until the end, right before the crash. If Roberto did get under his skin, that could cloud Bruno's mind enough for him to make a mistake driving. On the other hand, Risi and Sonego may be trying to tell us there is no way to punish Bruno. At the end, we can't tell for sure if Bruno's more broken up over his wrecked Lancia or Roberto's death. I'm leaning towards the Lancia, based on how he talked about it. Bruno's expression shows us he feels a loss, but he doesn't run down to check on his friend. Though, I could be persuaded otherwise.
It also had those Nabokov threads. That was a tiny bit weird, ping-pong and all.