I saw this film two times in 1973 and a few years later again in art cinemas in the United States. I vividly remember the opening line, "I'm off to kill Mussolini. Screw the rest." While Fox Lorber put this film on DVD in 1997, it is now unavailable and sells for $37 used. I bought a made-in-China copy for $5 on Ebay. I was a bit upset when the first title read only "I'm off to kill Mussolini." I wondered why the change? Anyways the rest of the DVD seemed fine.
This is an amazing film. The acting by everyone is superb, with Giancarlo Gianini giving a performance that won him a best acting award at the Cannes film festival and should have won him an Oscar. He is Chaplinesque, but not imitative of Chaplin or anybody else. It is one of the most sympathetic performances ever given. In many scenes, he doesn't talk, but you sense his feelings of anger or sadness. His mass of freckles on his face make him look more like a 14 year old than a man planning a major political assassination. Mariangela Melato is sexy, foul-mouthed and hilarious. She also manages to make you believe that she is both a cynical prostitute and a politically and culturally aware anarchist. Lina Polito is the young prostitute with hope. She gives a performance similar to and as wonderful as Liza Minnelli in "Cabaret."
The musical score by Federico Fellini's main composer, Nino Rota, is energetic and terrific. It often counterpoints the action on the screen, bringing us away from it, and making some harsh scenes seem comical, but it also heightens the playfulness or menace in other crucial scenes. He won an Oscar for the Godfather Part II a few years later, but he deserved one here too.
This is a tribute to the European nihilist and anarchist movements of the 1800 and 1900's. It is also powerfully anti-fascist.
This is great and enthralling film-making. It is Lina Wertmuller's best film and still stands out today, nearly 40 years later, as a great historical and humanist work of art. It is sad that more people do not know about it and have not had the opportunity to experience it.
Having seen about 6,000 films (150 films X 40 years), I would put this one in the top twenty.
