You're on Your Own

At the end of the fifties finding a place to live in Rome is next to impossible. After months of searching, a large family finally gets hold of a big flat at a reasonable price. The only problem is the building's past: until recently this was a brothel, and it operated as one until the law shut it down. The former customers do not stop knocking. And the neighbourhood starts looking at the family differently. Peppino De Filippo plays the father of the family and Totò the man opposite him; the two were among the best known pairings in Italian comedy. Mauro Bolognini directed. The joke comes out of a law: Italy closed its brothels in 1958 and the buildings emptied. The film mocks the gap left behind and people's hypocrisy about morals. Franca Valeri is also in the cast. A hundred and five minutes.