Product Details

• Actors: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill, Edward Andrews, Gianfranco Barra
• Directors: Billy Wilder
• Writers: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Samuel A. Taylor
• Producers: Billy Wilder
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, Italian
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: June 22, 1994
• Run Time: 140 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303091970
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,002 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The complete obscurity of Avanti! is a cinematic injustice that needs to be rectified. Jack Lemmon and director Billy Wilder made their share of hits together (Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, for starters), but this wry, melancholy comedy was completely out of touch with its time (which recalls a Wilder one-liner from the '70s: "Who the hell would want to be in touch with these times?"). It may have flopped badly in 1972, but it wears well in retrospect. Lemmon plays a jerk American businessman called to Italy to pick up the body of his father, who died while enjoying a secret (and, it turns out, annual) liaison with a mistress. With the help of a delightful Englishwoman (Juliet Mills) who happens to be the daughter of the "other woman," Lemmon finds himself stepping in a few of Dad's footsteps, and falling under the sway of the beguiling Italian atmosphere. A very leisurely movie, but that's part of its effect. Clive Revill delivers a gem of a performance as a heroic hotel manager, and Juliet Mills (sister of Hayley, daughter of Oscar-winner John) had her finest screen hour here. As a director, Wilder spent much of his early career camouflaging his romantic streak under a cynical front; here, despite many acerbic touches and the presence of death as the central plot device, the romance is in full flower under the rich Italian sun. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SAME TIME NEXT YEAR, December 10, 2000

By 

Loren D. Morrison "amateur_reviewer" (Los Angeles County, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Avanti [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There's nothing too complicated about the plot. A rich American businessman played by Jack Lemmon has to make a sudden trip to Italy to claim the body of his father who was killed in an auto accident. He meets a young English woman, played by Juliet Mills, who has come to Italy to claim the body of her mother who, it turns out, died with Lemmon's father. It seems that these two were in the midst of their annual month long tryst. For many years they had been meeting at exactly the same date at exactly the same Italian resort for what was obviously their raison d'etre.

Strait-laced Lemmon is shocked that his father could possibly behave in such a manner. Life loving Mills is thrilled that her mother had found love and happiness. The rest of the plot consists of the complications of dealing with Italian bureaucracy and the evolution of Lemmon's character from cold efficient American businessman to a warm loving human being. Mills has "just a bit" to do with these changes in Lemmon.

There was a running gag throughout the movie that exactly reflected my own experiences in Italy. The morgue was closed until 4:00 because it was lunch time. There were no taxis because it was lunch time. A helicopter was told not to land at a local airport because it was lunch time. In my own experience, when attempting to cash some travelers' checks in Rome, I was made to wait at a bank window for over 30 minutes while the cashier finished his sandwich and looked at a newspaper. No, no other window cashed travelers' checks and yes, he'd take care of me when he was ready, but he wasn't ready yet. I think that the feeling of "been there, done that" really added to my enjoyment of AVANTI, and the jokes built around the Italian inefficiencies did a lot to create the atmosphere of the whole movie.

You don't have to have been there, however, to enjoy this movie. It's warm and funny on its own. Lemmon and Mills seem destined for one another, and the hotel manager, played by Clive Revill, who is obviously in love with love, adds another dimension of humor. No great drama, but loving good-natured comedy is what you can expect from AVANTI.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for love in all the right places..., August 17, 1999

By 

"masonx" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Avanti [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Accidently caught this late night movie while channel surfing in a hotel room on a freezing London night far from home and nursing a cold.I was enchanted as I'd never heard of it.Jack Lemmon as Wendell Armbruster and Juliet Mills as Pamela Pigott give convincing portrayals of a millionaire american and a working class englishwoman come to Italy to retrieve the bodies of his father and her mother,who unknown to their families had been lovers for years and had died tragically together in a car accident.Jack Lemmon displays his acumen for comedy without even trying and miss Mills gives an understated performance.But kudos must go to the person who cast Clive Reville in the part of Carlucci the indispensible hotel manager.When he blurts out 'idiota' to an incompetent underling in absolute frustration its an absolute delight.It was a while before I realized he wasnt neapolitan.What a pity his talents have not been more recognized.I would also commend the melodic theme music arranged by Mr Rustichelli.The ending was not a complete surprise but fitting all the same. Please rent this one out all you romance lovers,you will not be disappointed, ...as for my cold,lo and behold the next morning it was gone!,funny that...

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleeper romantic comedy: Lemmon and Mills make this classic, December 30, 2004

By 

Adam Bernstein "sixtiesuniverse" (Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Avanti! (DVD)

With "Senza Fina" as the musical theme we've got a top rate romantic comedy in "Avanti!" Jack Lemmon arrives in Italy to get his father's corpse back to the US in time for the funeral to be viewed by 200,000 people on closed circuit TV (black and white in Puerto Rico). The jokes reference the time (1972) as the pilot in flight tells a State Department guy, "Greece is on the far left" "Not while I'm in the State Department". And Jack Lemmon's earily relevant gripe: "Goddamn Ralph Nader".

But what really makes this film is Juliet Mills who just came off the show, "Nanny and the Professor" and proves herself here as the weight-conscious lass who wins Lemmon's heart...and ours. It seems her mother and Lemmon's father had a 10 year affair at the hotel whose manager played by Clive Revill takes care of all the arrangements (What would Lemmon do without him). Meanwhile the porter is trying to blackmail Lemmon with compromising photos. Lemmon can no longer resist Mills charm.

"Permesso?" "Avanti!" 5 stars.