Product Details

• Actors: Vittorio Gassman, Alessandro Momo, Agostina Belli, Moira Orfei, Franco Ricci
• Directors: Dino Risi
• Format: Subtitled, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: October 14, 1997
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304600321
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,791 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The inspiration for the wildly successful film featuring Al Pacino in his Academy Award-winning performance, this 1974 Italian original shares some of the same quiet, melancholy pathos and dark comic moments of its more famous counterpart. Vittorio Gassman plays a blind and bitter army officer who embarks on a decadent and self-destructive journey across Italy with a young private (Alessandro Momo) reluctantly in tow. The film, directed by Dino Risi, occasionally engages in gallows humor as it traces the path of a man who feels he has nothing to live for other than the fleeting remembrances of women, and who finally realizes the worth in loyalty and true camaraderie. This is an opportunity to see a film that not only stands well on its own but that provided the basis for its well-loved American counterpart. --Robert Lane

Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times

"A roaring delight!"

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profumo di donna, December 8, 2004

By 

M. Ferrer "Mónica Ferrer" (SPAIN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scent of a Woman (Profumo di Donna) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I must confess I did not know this film existance after the other one with Pacino was released. Because I was so disappointment with it I thought that maybe the Italian one was better. And it is.

I think that humanity is the first word to describe it. The character of Fausto , played by an extraordinary Vittorio Gassman, is a man in all his complexity and humanity. He does not accept his blindness and wants to live as if he were still seeing. He knows it is a lie, but it is the only way he has to live. He is rude, unpolite, dictatorial and you love him. Not because you feel pity for him, but because he is human and only the great Vittorio could played a man like him. It is a masterful performing.

On a long trip from Turin to Naples he has the company of a young soldier, Ciccio, played by a competent Alessandro Momo. He is the the link between the audience and Fausto. He is shocked by this strange man, who is unbereable but who also shows him how to open to life.

I think this film is by far better that the one with Pacino. This is real, because the characters are not unidimensional. they have weakness and virtues. And also shows us dignity in its crudest, realistic way.

This film talk about real people, forgetting sterotipes. In their journey we learn that friendship, real one, comes from accepting others faults and not by praising their virtues. It is a film I really encourage to see by anyone who likes good cinema.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating and engaging script!, February 10, 2005

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scent of a Woman (Profumo di Donna) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Vittorio Gassman made one of his best performances in all his brilliant career. The first Italian actor of the XX Century shone so passionately natural, with such acting level as few times you will be capable to admire or even compare. To say this performance influenced to Al Pacino in the later remake is more than obvious.

The beauty of Agostina Belli and the assertive script; the fine irony, the corrosive cynicism of that man fallen in disgrace due his blindness will learn a life lesson when a woman convinces him the life - even in the worst conditions - deserves to be lived.

This is the sumptuous and supreme masterwork of Dino Risi, by far. A real legacy for future generations of filmmakers and the audiences who will survive us. It's useless to state this is one of my personal top one hundred films in any age!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Profuma d'Italia, August 4, 2010

By 

Stefanie Casey (The Cultural Sojourner) "Stef" (Southern California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Profumo Di Donna (Scent of a Woman) (DVD)

If you only viewed the American derivative of this film, you have not experienced 'Scent of a Woman.' Vittorio Gassman is mesmerizing ~ what a gifted actor! A revealing tour through Italy, sometimes seedy. A very human film.