Cinema
A Difficult Life
Una vita difficile
Dino Risi · 1961
Synopsis
Italy, 1944. Silvio Magnozzi, a Roman student turned second lieutenant, has joined the partisans near Lake Como. Surprised by a German soldier, he is saved by Elena, the daughter of the hotel's owner, who hides him for three months in a mill, where they fall in love, before he rejoins the Resistance. After the war, a left-wing journalist again in Rome, he meets Elena again, and the couple make their way through postwar Italy, between fidelity to their ideas and poverty.
Context
The screenplay is by Rodolfo Sonego, who put part of his own life into it; the film is produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Alberto Sordi plays Silvio and Lea Massari plays Elena. The story is anchored to the great dates of the country: the 1946 referendum on the monarchy, the attack on the communist leader Palmiro Togliatti in 1948, then the economic miracle. It earned its director the esteem of a left-wing critical establishment that had until then been wary of him and of the comic genre as a whole.
Who it is for
Two hours in black and white; it helps to know Italian political history from 1944 to 1960, which the film does not explain.
Prizes and reception
David di Donatello for best producer and best actress for Lea Massari; selected among the hundred Italian films to be saved.
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