In Sicily, the mine worker Carmelo "Mimí" Mardocheo (Giancarlo Giannini) votes in the Communist Party candidate instead of in the Mafia's one believing that the suffrage is secret. After the elections, he loses his job and cannot find any other job in his village that is controlled by the mobster Don Calogero (Turi Ferro). He leaves his wife Rosalia (Agostina Belli) with his family and travels to Turin expecting to find a job.
He finds an illegal position in the civil construction that is also explored by the Mafia and when a coworker dies in an accident, he finds that the mobsters have dumped his body on the road. However, he does not report the crime to the police and lies to the mobster Salvatore Tricarico (Turi Ferro) telling that he belongs to the family of a powerful mobster. Mimi gets a metallurgic position and joins the Communist Party. Then he fall in love with the virgin Trotskyite street vendor Fiorella Meneghini (Mariangela Melato) and they have a boy.
When Mimi witness the mobster Vico Tricarico (Turi Ferro) executing several men in a hotel, he survives but he does not report to the police. Mimi is transferred to Catania in a supervisory position against his will. He brings Fiore and their son to Sicily, but he is still married with Rosalia but he claims that he is ill and does not have sex with her. When Mimi learns that Rosalia is pregnant, he finds that he is a cuckold and plots a scheme to seduce and knock up Amalia Finocchiaro (Elena Fiore), who is the wife of Rosalia's lover. But his revenge does not work as planned.
"Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore" is a bitter satire by Lina Wertmüller about a naive and ignorant Sicilian worker that entwines his honor with class warfare, politics and mafia in his miserable life with tragicomic consequences. I saw this movie in the 70's or 80's and today I have just watched the Brazilian DVD that is unfortunately edited to 108 minutes running time.
I am a fan of the Italian director Lina Wertmüller and I like this unfunny satire about honor, moral and culture that is dated in the present days but it is impossible to laugh with the ignorance of Mimi and most of his countrymen. This weird movie may be lost between comedy and drama but for me it is an original and cult view of Italy in the early 70's. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Mimi, O Metalúrgico" ("Mimi, The Metallurgic")
