Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
Ettore Scola's deeply affectionate elegy to postwar Italian life and cinema is one of the most distinctive films of the 1970s. The plot, spanning three decades through the intertwined lives of three partisans, is emotionally rich and structurally inventive, weaving personal disillusionment with political idealism. The acting ensemble — Gassman, Manfredi, Satta Flores — is extraordinary, delivering performances of great warmth and nuance. Cinematography oscillates brilliantly between black-and-white and color, honoring the neorealist tradition while commenting on it, and the in-film sequences referencing Fellini and De Sica are cinematic love letters executed with supreme craft. Novelty is exceptionally high: the film's self-referential relationship with Italian cinema history, its tonal blend of comedy and melancholy, and its structural ambition make it utterly singular. The ending, while emotionally resonant, is the one element that feels slightly more conventional — a bittersweet settling of accounts that, though fitting, doesn't quite match the inventive brilliance of what precedes it.