Word: spadaro
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...middle-aged hero (Umberto Spadaro), Fascism at first is something to suffer in silence and loathe from a distance. Then it closes in until it engulfs him: it forces him to join the party or lose his job; it turns his wife and daughter into prattling Mussolini worshipers; it sends his oldest son (Massimo Girotti) to fight in Ethiopia, Spain, Albania and Russia and claims his two younger sons for the Battle of Sicily...
...Umberto recognizes that his reluctant silence meant consent, and feels the final crushing weight of his own responsibility. By then it is too late even to make his peace with the Allied conquerors. Cynical connivers higher up in the party suddenly emerge as democrats, but small-fry Fascist Spadaro loses the little job that he once joined the party to save...
...Difficult Years offers a masterly Chaplinesque performance by Actor Spadaro, as the pathetic, sometimes ludicrous hero. And Director Zampa tells his quiet, straightforward story with compassion, humor, biting irony and a firm grasp of character. It is a story full of meaning for a world still under totalitarian clouds...
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