User reviews

Virna Lisi, the love of my youth! Very young and beautiful here. An excellent Marisa Merlini, a sober Vittorio De Sica, who says real things about the world of film, about the director-producer relationship. Jacques Sernas is OK and nothing more. It's worth seeing, especially by those who know and appreciate the actors, the world of theater and film.

This is like a panoramic documentary of contemporary Italian cinema in 1959. Almost all the leading actors of the day have a part in the film , they are like on parade one after the other, and they almost all play themselves. The story is commonplace: a local actor tires of the humdrum routines of his home town and goes to Rome to do something about his career, where he meets Vittorio de Sica as a director, Yvonne Samson as a film star with whom he embarks on a relationship, Amedeo Nazzari as another important man in Cinecittá, and many others. There are many comic instances, as this is a comedy, especially in the beginning before the Roman venture, but finally he gives it all up and returns to his girl at home, Virna Lisi, very young and beautiful. There are many social activities on the way but no drama, but the value of the film is the thorough and very spiritual insight into the sparkling Italian cinema life of that time.