Ugly, Dirty and Bad

On the edge of Rome an extended family lives in a single shack. The head of the family hides the compensation money he has received and everyone is looking for a way to get it. The film refuses entirely to sentimentalise poverty; the narrative shows its characters as greedy, coarse and merciless with each other and asks for no sympathy. That choice sets it apart from the social realist tradition of the period. Ettore Scola directed, with Nino Manfredi. He took the best director prize at Cannes. A real warning: there is sexual violence, cruelty to an animal and domestic violence. The comic register does not soften that; it makes it more uncomfortable.