Il sorpasso is a pungent, satiric view of the economic boom of the late fifties and early sixties, and joins La dolce vita in unmasking the spiritual malaise that fuels the jet set. Vittorio Gassman excels in the role of a rogue, the fast-driving, fast-talking playboy Bruno Fortuna, who lures a leery young student, Roberto (Jean-Louis Trintignant), into his sports car for a jaunt along the Riviera designed to show the timid boy how to take big bites out of life. Bruno and Roberto's contrasting ways are dramatized in hilarious and sharply observed episodes. In Bruno's orbit, Roberto loses his timidity and stiffness, but also his ideals.