[size=12pt]Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare lâamico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa?/Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?/Um Italiano em Angola[/size] b Ettore Scola[/b]
The fact that I will be spending a lot of time in Ăfrica in the following months, is by no chance strange to the fact of my will mixed with curiosity to see this film.
It ended up to be a great and nice surprises, cause only a few weeks ago Iâve notice this Scola work.
It was mostly shot in Angola while it was still a Portuguese territory, which makes it the only international film that I known about it filmed there before 74, I could be wrong but I just donât remember any other film in that circumstances, of course from all the three Portuguese Colonial war fronts, the Angola one was the most peaceful or quiet or even better saying the less troubled one, this for several reasons and not all military ones, but that is another issue. Also about the locations the Italians ones they used the ones normally used in SW, and I think they even the Gordon Mitchell town that was being constructed at the time, Iâm not 100% sure but Iâm almost there, maybe Iâll put some pics of those scenes.
Talking about the film letâs not forget the most important thing, I was first surprised by the main subject itself , I didnât live on those days of course, but my guess is that the subject (escaping or trying to, from the modern world) was not that normal or regular back in the final sixties, at least not in a one sided Hippie kind of way, so for a 1968 film itâs a very modern one, also being shot in Africa thereâs not the basic Tintin syndrome, with the director never patronising the African people, of course the film is based on a European, point of view perhaps a egocentric one, but the egocentric part was wanted by the director, just to show the ambiguity of the main characters.
The story goes around a Italian business man (Sordi) that tired of his daily life, goes to Africa with the company of his book keeper (a brilliant Bernard Blier) in search of his brother in law. The story was clearly based in Conradâs Heart of Darkness, but like if it was a comical version of that book, which makes the all thing even more brilliant, can anyone imagine Heart of Darkness as a comedy, well Scola and screenwriter Agenore Incrocci (by the way the same one who made the initial GBU screenplay, that was dismissed by Leone) did it, as a comedy is a brilliant film is fun but is serious at the same time, not that easy.
The acting is wonderful stuff Alberto Sordi is magnificent, and Bernard Blier as well (Iâm a Blier family admirer), I think Sordi was in a way an underrated actor, notice Erica Blanc also in the cast, and not forget Nino Manfredi in a great supporting role.
This one is truly a hidden gem a very clever film with a great story that stood perfectly the test of time, directed in a superior way by a master behind the camera, probably the director in what Italian comedies concerns, and with great actors too.
If you have the chances watch this one it real deserves it. Donât let the title fool you the film is everything but pretentious
