La vita è bella

A good story well narrated, cut around the life of protagonists and leaving the political and social events voluntarily in the background. The Soviet influence in the story and the direction is not so evident and for sure not disturbing. Reminds me somehow "Una giornata particolare" by Ettore Scola.

The action takes place in Portugal takes place in Portugal presumably in the first half of the seventies (assumed from the police cars models) under the Salazar tyranny and during the last colonial war of the dying Portuguese empire.

Centered around the interior evolution of the protagonist (Giancarlo Giannini) an his outstanding performance, supported by the very good and always beautiful Ornella Muti, with other actors, unknown to me, sketching a credible and not completely flat scenario of the fascist regime (see the contrasting characters of the colonel and the judge).

Nice action scenes, far more elegant than those in Italian the police of the same period.