Life Is Beautiful

I can't believe how overlooked this movie is, it's one of the best of the Itallian 'Poliziotti' crime thrillers of the 70's. Starring the always fantastic Giancarlo Giannini and the absolutely gorgeous Ornella Muti it ranks alongside the likes of 'High Crime (1973)'.

OVERVIEW - Wrongly accused of conspiracy against the state, a man is arrested, imprisoned and separated from his lover, beaten by the authorities for failure to collaborate, and threatened by the resistance, who believe him to be a government spy.

This movie is probably so overlooked due to the fact it's so hard to find, but there is a very rare DVD release in the UK under the title 'Betrayed' I would recommend fans of this type of movie to hunt it out...10/10

When I red the review I can't believe my eyes! I suppose that you watched the Russian version of the movie. I have an Italian copy of it, and the plot is about an ex Portuguese pilot on the war of Angola who is involved with Portugal freedom action before revolution in 1975 because of the love of a girl. I love the music of Maestro Trovajoli, and in the movie you can listen from a radio the music that Trovajoli wrote for another movie concerning Angola "Riusciranno i Nostri Eroi..." Despite the cast and the director the movie did not have success and this is the reason why disappeared, I was lucky to record a good copy from the Italian television. That's it, very far from Italian police thriller movie!!

Solidly directed thriller concerning organised discontent with the Italian government and police, who it has to be said, never come out well in Italian movies. Here this is a co-production with USSR so this may suggest a little bit of encouragement coming from the communists in the Soviet union in support of their comrades within Italy. The movie itself is more concerned with 'the fight for freedom' and the penal consequences than with your usual Italian politza action. We have killers and car chases but this is far a from glamorous portrayal, apart of course from the excellent Giancarlo Giannini and the lovely Ornella Muti. Decent dialogue, always involving and just that little bit different.

There is a version with Russian soundtrack which has been restored and uploaded by Mosfilm in Feb 2022. The Italian version remains elusive, not sure if it is better, or if it even exists. The principal actors feel a bit strange in Russian, it take a bit of getting used to. I always thought Visconti's The Damned and Ludwig and Cavani's The Night Porter were much better in English as the actors had spoken English during the filming. This film is set in Portugal during the Estado Novo (Salazar had an accident in 1968 and died in 1970, Estat Novo lasted until 1974) and so the Mercedes Benz taxi that Giancarlo Giannini drives is from the 60s, the police cars from the early 70s & Giannini's clothes are from a bit later in the 70s. The Soviet director Chukhrai wouldn't have clocked the period clothing probably coming from behind the iron curtain. But this dissonance, the lack of clarity about where and when, could be one reason why the film wasn't a big hit and has been forgotten.

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.