Brutti, sporchi e cattivi

Scola picked up the best director prize at Cannes for this grim comedy about a large, degenerate family living in a shanty town on the outskirts of Rome. Manfredi is the pathetic and monstrous one-eyed patriarch Giacinto, consumed with fear that his bundle of insurance money (a million lire!) will be stolen by his scheming relatives. They would too! Scola by no means romanticises the poor (drinking, thieving and copulation is about all they're interested in), but in this environment it's hard to see how it could be otherwise. Depressing and funny at the same time: cross Bicycle Thieves and Steptoe and Son and you're in the right vicinity.