In 1948, Luigi Zampa teamed up with Sicilian writer Vitaliano Brancati and completed Anni Difficili (Difficult Years), describing a petty clerk's unjust trial for his fascist past, only to provoke a discussion in the Italian parliament about films dealing with inappropriate themes. Writer and director continued their association until Brancati's death during the production of The Art of Getting By. This time the controversial theme is the expedient adaptability of the Italian character. Rising toward riches, Alberto Sordi plays a clever Sicilian who adapts himself to the changing regimes of Italy. The film passes through the monarchy, socialism, fascism and the rule of the clerics. Zampa's portrait of Sordi's amoral pragmatist wavers between amusing fun and bitter satire. You don't know whether to applaud or hiss this ethical chameleon.