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Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen

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Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen
(Signore e signori buonanotte)
Film poster
Directed byLuigi Comencini
Nanni Loy
Luigi Magni
Mario Monicelli
Ettore Scola
Agenore Incrocci
Furio Scarpelli
Leo Benvenuti
Piero De Bernardi
Ugo Pirro
Ruggero Maccari
Written byLeonardo Benvenuti
Luigi Comencini, Piero De Bernardi, Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luigi Comencini, Mario Monicelli, Nanni Loy, Luigi Magni, Ettore Scola, Ruggero Maccari, Ugo Pirro
Produced byFranco Committeri
StarringVittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi, Paolo Villaggio, Marcello Mastroianni
CinematographyClaudio Ragona
Edited byAmedeo Salfa
Music byLucio Dalla and Antonello Venditti
Release date
  • 28 October 1976 (1976-10-28)
Running time
118 minutes (Italian original version)
105 minutes (American edition)
CountriesItaly
France
LanguageItalian

Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (Template:Lang-it, Template:Lang-fr) is a 1976 French-Italian comedy film starring Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi, Nino Manfredi, Paolo Villaggio, Marcello Mastroianni, Senta Berger, Adolfo Celi and Felice Andreasi.[1]

Plot

The film, which contains a very strong satirical genre that teases and points in a fun but also serious issues, vices and habits of the Italians during the 1970s. The film is divided into episodes that are related to interviews and discorse journalist Paul T. River (Paolo T. Fiume - Marcello Mastroianni), the news commentator of the third channel of Italian television Rai 3. What's funny about this character are the constant interruptions of his work and services aired due to the malfunctioning of machinery or because of secretaries and directors and incompetent, as the girls who really like Paul. In fact, during the services of the news, Paul instead of sitting on the desk where he has to announce the news, chases secretaries for conversarci intimately or waste time eating or building paper airplanes.

The Italian businessman Gianni Agnelli is kidnapped and to pay his ransom was to take the money from the salaries of its poor workers, held affectionately and sarcastically by Agnelli real relatives who are cheerful and happy family. In the second incident a girl introduces English lessons for children, showing parts of her body, including her breasts, her ass and uterus, and subsequently encounters a secret agent. The man arrived at the home of Miss to kill the ambassador 'Africa, and during the operation in English conversation with the woman, only to be killed by her, which turns out to be a spy. Below is a brief interlude advertising introduces a man who is riding a bicycle happily along with his son, the man is carrying large sums of money and go through the customs of the Switzerland. Indeed there for an Italian law it is impossible to find out who owns the money, most entrepreneurs and corrupt politicians, and so can not take the complaint. In the next episode, the scene is set in Italy, site of many massacres and murders of journalists, politicians and writers during the Seventies. In fact, at that time the party of the "Christian Democrats" was in power in Montecitorio and the leader was Giulio Andreotti, who dared to question the authority of the party or published essays and articles against the laws and the decisions of politicians of that time was murdered in the most vile and so that the reconstruction of the events would have taken much fear of surveys and research. The episode The Bomb speaks of this: in a police station the police and the police discover a strange and suspicious ticking, which suggests the presence of a bomb in the building, so ordered the total evacuation of the barracks. On the spot come the Guardia di Finanza, the Civil Defence Department, the Police and many journalists. A volunteer is sent with a radar to detect the device but you will find that the ticking is from an alarm clock. The news has not yet been distributed among the crowd and the authorities, as the director of Civil Protection to gain something in the matter and not to make a fool goes with colleagues to get a real bomb to blow up the building. Everything is carefully analyzed and prepared, but one who is sending volunteers to plant the bomb in the building synchronizes the clock wrong and so the bomb explodes before his accomplices could manage the barracks.

Also in Italy Archbishop holds a put on the meaning of family and values below a child out of the church to start for home. The city is in the grip of the most miserable desolation and the stench of waste and poor and deplorable condition of the buildings and the people of Naples skyrocket. The poor child comes home, a small apartment inhabited by a myriad of children and babies born to a woman tired and lazy, plus left by her husband still pregnant. The child blessed by the day as he had to prepare food for his brothers and sisters younger than him, and to clothe and care of his mother had to stay in bed, so loses hope and commits suicide by jumping from the balcony. The episode is commented by a German professor named Schmidt who, based on work by Jonathan Swift, proposes a method for resolving totally eliminate the overpopulation of the world's great cities: eat children, but only those poor! Paul T. River has since hosted four directors in the studio in the city of Naples. These are related to each other and governed the city for generations cheating and taking advantage of the weaknesses of poor ignorant people, they are also horrible on the basis of physical appearance and have a belly that exceeds the limits of the impossible. The journalist asks them what they think of to do to solve the economic problems and the city's administrative, but they pretended not to have understood improvise meaningless talk by thanking the mayors and ministers who have elected him, speaking also with rudeness and dialect to have made the better for the city of Naples. The four crooks also receive insults written by listeners of news, and below, comparing the city to a masterpiece Earth, praising the limits of flattery, you eat the pieces of sugar that formed the model of Naples on the table of the study.

A general must go to a festival and parade of the greatest military institutions, however, runs into the bathroom first. However, the toilet is in poor condition and the toilet is clogged from the previous needs, plus the general loses even inside the cap and medals. Considered that it was dishonored for what has happened, after completely smeared with the needs stuck in the toilet, the General shoots himself in the temple desperate. On subsequent Paul T. River narrator reads a service of the demolition of an ancient Roman temple of the 5th century who resided in abusively in front of the mansion of an Italian politician of the South is then proposed an episode of a television series, "Inspector Tuttumpezzo" in where a policeman very picturesque deceived by political ends that had to stop because of his good manners and his gentle nature. During the record as the news interviewed people less fortunate of Italy is chosen a bum. Although in these poor conditions, has his own way to survive getting medicines to the hospital places for meals, paying a prostitute who cooked chestnuts with his retirement, although he has never worked in his life and then living with many newspapers to replace blankets and sheets. When asked by a journalist if ever the tramp had never eaten meat, they ride of anger and despair crazy. In Italy aired a new episode television: "The show of the unfortunate" (Disgraziometro) where guests are the most unfortunate state selected from hundreds of thousands. Based on the tragic and deplorable description that each competitor has its own sad situation, the television host increases the points in his favor until you win.

In Italy aired also a popular television series that talks about the intrigues at St. Peter's in Rome of popes and cardinals who want to ascend to the Holy Throne. The Cardinals Piazza, Colonna and colleagues have the same number of voting for one of them to become pope and covers the favors of his relatives and friends, but during the night, many of the voters are mysteriously killed. To get the final vote, the two cardinals think about dying Felicetto who refuses to give his consent. As the two men of the church are not able to resolve the situation, think to do Felicetto Pope, as he is about to die, and then to resume hostilities. The ceremony takes place and Felicetto is crowned the new pontiff, when suddenly these heals and taunts all claiming to have pretended to be sick for so many years just waiting for such an occasion. Now that he became pope does kill the cardinals Piazza Colonna and their followers. In the last episode of politicians and clerics anzianissimi celebrate the New Year, highlighting companies to the detriment of the poor and the middle class of Italy. After the speech, the pope Paul VI sudden a tarantella with the President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone and the members of the assembly.

Cast

References

  1. ^ "New York Times: Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-09-02.