Customer Reviews

VIVA ITALIA! / The New Monsters (I Nuovi Mostri) [NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Italy]

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It has been more than 30 years since I saw Viva Italia (I Nuovi Mostri in Italy), but in more than 70 years of watching films, this is the most beautiful and most unforgettable movie I have ever seen. For the past 20 years or so, friends and family have joined me in my search for a copy of this film, and this is the first time I've seen it listed on Amazon, even though its status is "currently unavailable."

To the best of my recollection, the film is made up of 9 separate vignettes, directed in groups of 3 by 3 different directors. I seem to remember hearing that it was originally made as a showcase for the styles and techniques of the directors. Among the cast members, Vittorio Gassman and Urnella Muti stand out in my memory, as well as Alberto Sordi who gives a hilarious portrayal of a good soul attempting to assist an injured stranger he finds lying in the street. When no hospital or clinic will accept the injured man - for a variety of crazy reasons - Sordi calmly returns to the place where he found the injured man and places him back on the sidewalk.

The segment with Urnella Muti is a shocker. Muti plays the part of an airline stewardess who meets a man at the hotel swimming pool during a layover. They dine, dance and romance the evening away, but the "gift" he brings to her the following day before she boards the plane is quite explosive.

This movie ought to be on everyone's "must see" list.