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I Soliti Ignoti (1958)

Director: Mario Monicelli

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From Time Out Film Guide

A charming comedy, perhaps a little déjà vu after countless imitations and variations culminating in Louis Malle's distinctly iffy 1983 remake as Crackers. Countering the famous sequence in Rififi which observed in meticulous detail the perfect execution of a robbery, Monicelli offers a robbery equally meticulously planned (by a sad sack mix of desperate unemployed and washed-up pros) in which everything goes hilariously wrong. It may not sound much, but Monicelli's timing (giving the series of disasters an almost malevolent inevitability) is brilliant, the ensemble playing couldn't be bettered, and the deliberate cartoon-style stereotyping of the characters is neatly offset by a neo-realist emphasis on real locations in the dank slums of Rome.

Author: TM 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Mario Monicelli

Producer: Franco Cristaldi

Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Marcello Mastroianni, Toto, Memmo Carotenuto, Claudia Cardinale full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 105 mins


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