A Drama of Jealousy (and other things)

In Rome, the building worker Oreste meets Adelaide, who sells flowers, and an affair begins. Oreste is married. Then Nello the pizza maker appears; young, handsome, and Adelaide is drawn to him. All three love each other, none of them can let go, and the situation turns slowly into a catastrophe. The subject is not jealousy but jealousy managing to be ridiculous and tragic at once. You laugh through the film and by the end there is nothing left to laugh at, and that transition is exactly what Italian comedy does best. The form is loose: characters speak straight to camera, the narration interrupts itself, the flashbacks are irregular. Ettore Scola changes the form according to the state his characters are in. Marcello Mastroianni won the best actor prize at Cannes for this role. Monica Vitti plays Adelaide and Giancarlo Giannini plays Nello. The original title is long and mocking, a joke aimed at the traditions of Italian comedy itself. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian comedy and humour that turns into tragedy. Who it is not for: anyone who wants one side to be vindicated; the film defends all three equally and blames all three equally.