Word: bruno
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...film with such a transparent plot could easily have been a clunker, but instead, The Easy Life is a wildly enchanting film. Director Dino Risi starts with what seems to be an upper middle class La Dolce Vita. Bruno, a middle-aged playboy from Rome, drives his sports car fast but isn't really happy because, deep down, he's bored and leading a superficial existence...
...know? Simple. Bruno has a sidekick during two frantic days, a callow, sallow law student named Roberto, so shy he won't call for help when accidentally locked in a public bathroom. The Playboy asks the Law student, "Why not throw yourself into life," and the Law Student cleverly counters, "I worry where I'm going to fall." The Playboy mutters to us all, "You're right, I'm the fool." Clunk...
Amazingly enough, the cliche is convincing on the screen. One reason clearly is Vittorio Gassman, who plays Bruno with such vitality and abandon that the playboy's frenzy to "live every minute" seems only partially pathetic. Such a life can be rich and genuinely enjoyable. His experiences are no more superficial than most experiences in life...
Because of the force of his personality and because his extroverted life lends itself well to visual presentation, Bruno dominates the screen. But he never really changes and, though he at first overshadows the law student, Roberto's silent, internal development assumes prime significance. Enchanted by the older man, Roberto (Jean Louis Trintignant) gradually becomes emancipated from his Caspar Milquetoast past. Bruno catalyzes Roberto's transformation. For example, the law student loses a bit of his innocence only when Bruno reveals the old family caretaker, Gaylord, as a homosexual...
Director Risi reveals the shallow, lonely aspects of Bruno's life poignantly yet comically. Long separated from his wife, Bruno visits his old home for the first time in three years. He dismisses his beautiful young daughter (Catherine Spaak) with advice to go out with younger guys (she deftly defends her aging fiancee: "Marriages of love often don't succeed. I'll go to Harvard to study and work in his research department.") and winds up in his wife's bedroom. Momentarily awakened to the wasted opportunities of the past and the emptiness of the present, he reaches...