Icicle Thief

The director of a monochrome hommage to Bicycle Thieves is invited on to a TV programme to discuss his film before a screening. But during the transmission, his movie is interrupted by colour commercials, the characters slip from one world into another, and eventually the director himself intervenes to sort out the mess. Nichetti's wacky satire on the big screen/small screen war is technically very effective, but his own manic performance as the mustachioed director is a major irritant. Some good in-jokes (like a housewife complaining about boring introductions to films on TV) help to pass the time.