This month PFA presents a reprise of 27 films from the summer ‘86 series Comedy, Italian Style, one of the most popular PFA series in recent years. Here is a chance to catch the films you may have missed, or see your favorites a second time.
Director Mario Monicelli has said, “In Italy, there has always been a tendency to view reality as a comedy with a touch of bitterness...born of misery.” Commedia all'italiana, with roots in neorealism of the late forties, is an art form derived from acute social observation. But unlike the neorealist films, the comedies made between 1949 and 1979 spoke a language of irony, substituting black humor for stark drama, and amoral practicality for moral anguish in films that were both funny and painful.
Comedy, Italian Style has been organized by Adrienne Mancia, Curator, and Stephen Harvey, Assistant Curator, in the Department of Film of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Graziella Lonardi, Adriano Aprà, and Patrizia Pistagnesi of the Incontri Internazionali d'Arte, Rome. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from Missoni, with additional support from the Italian Ministry of Entertainment and Tourism, the Italian National Tourist Board (C.I.T.) and the Ente Gestione di Cinema. At PFA we wish to thank Dr. Enzo Coniglio, director of the Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco, for his generous cooperation.
