The New Monsters

Fourteen short episodes, each a slice of Italian society: nurses ignoring a dying man in a hospital, a husband who loses his wife in the middle of the street, a mafia funeral, a priest who becomes a television star. Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi and Ettore Scola directed together, each taking different episodes. It was conceived as a continuation of the 1963 film The Monsters and keeps the same method: short, sharp, merciless satire. The cast includes Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman and Ornella Muti, with actors appearing in several episodes in different roles. The tone belongs to the darkest vein of Italian comedy: laughter comes, and what is shown is total moral collapse. One of the best-known episodes has a man choosing not to miss his television programme rather than help a dying friend. It was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian comedy and anthology films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting unity; there is no connection between the episodes and the quality is uneven.