"Sordi-or the Emperor. We cannot accuse him of lack of modesty when he claims in interviews to be the most representative figure of Italian comedy. For better or worse, Sordi's character coincides so perfectly with the portrait of the average Italian offered us for years by the cinema, that it is impossible to separate the two. The arrogant male, hypocritical, small-minded, miserly, a social climber, devoted body and soul to 'getting by': this is the pitiless portrait offered us by the various small-town playboys, bachelors, husbands, office workers, traffic cops, Mafia thugs, jailbirds, police commissioners, doctors, and manufacturers...who make up the film gallery created by Sordi. This Italian has to be mediocre if he is to survive in a society that only rewards slyness and deceit, power and money; but he is also capable of large and small triumphs that reveal an unexpected side of his nature, one almost heroic, ready to rebel against arbitrary control.... Sordi came from vaudeville, radio and dubbing, and after years of ruling the character roost as an actor, directed his first film, Fumo di Londra (in 1966)." Comedy, Italian Style, Adriano Apra and Patrizia Pistagnesi, ed. Alberto Sordi stars in seven other films in this month's reprise of Comedy, Italian Style: Mafioso and La Grande Guerra (June 1), Una Vita Difficile and Tutti a Casa (June 5), Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo (June 22), Viva Italia (June 26), and L'Ingorgo (June 27). Le Vacanze Intelligenti The best of the three-part Dove Vai in Vacanza (Where Are You Going on Holiday?) is generally acknowledged to be the episode directed by and starring Alberto Sordi. He plays a greengrocer who, with his plump wife (Anna Longhi), is packed off on an "intellectual" vacation by their three college-age kids who think mama and papa need some culture. A modern music concert in Florence and avant-garde installations at the Venice Biennale are no match for this common man in his pointed brown and white shoes that are so out, they're almost in.