The Scopone Game

This is another film resulting from the long and fruitful professional relationship between actor Alberto Sordi and writer Rodolfo Sonego, the most notable of which is probably Risi's 'la Vita Difficile'. Sordi and director Luigi Comencini were no strangers to each other either, having made, amongst others, the marvellous 'Tutti a casa'.

In common with so many films of the genre referred to as Commedia all'Italiana this has an underlying pathos and bitterness which stems from the constant struggle between 'the haves' and the 'have nots'.

The card game of the title, the rules of which are a mystery to me, played by junk-man Peppino and his wife against the millionairess and her companion epitomises this struggle. Never has the phrase 'money comes to money' seemed so apt.

This is an excellent film with a marvellous cast. Sordi of course never misses a beat whilst Silvana Mangano expresses so much by doing so little. They both won a David di Donatello award for this. The casting of Bette Davis is quite frankly a masterstroke. She is superb, her voice being seamlessly dubbed by Lia Zoppelli and Joseph Cotten makes the best of a pretty thankless part in this his third film with Miss Davis. The looks that pass between the players during the games are wonderfully directed by Comencini.

The game spreads from the confines of the magnificent villa to include all the inhabitants of the shanty town who are warned by the priest of the dangers of too much dreaming and of believing that money makes miracles, to no avail alas. Meanwhile back at the villa the tension becomes almost unbearable as the underdogs hit a lucky streak and are sitting on life-changing wealth but will Peppino play the right or the wrong of just two cards.....?

This film is all about money; what people without will do to get it and those with will do to keep it. That reminds me, I must do the Lottery this week. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Rome, 1970s. While a few benefit from the wealth of the modern world, many live in misery. Peppino, his wife Antonia and their five children live in a shanty town, populated by all sorts of tramps, pimps and prostitutes, plus a "professor" in disgrace who lectures everyone on the importance of reading and the beauty of Marxism. Every year a millionairess turns up to play cards with Peppino and Antonia, and every year they hope to win enough money to change their lives, not that they would need much, as they have nothing! The villa in which the old woman (la vecchia) lives is stunning, surrounded by the most beautiful roman trees, in stark contradiction with the grey poverty surrounding Peppino's family. The underlying theme of the film is class struggle and how the rich keep teasing the poor with the promise of a better future which never comes. But Comencini is not as bitter as his contemporaries (Monicelli, Petri etc): he celebrates love and humanity, something the old millionaire will never own. Needless to say, the performances are formidable.

Poverty and wealth confront each other over a (not very) friendly game of cards in this often nerve-wracking black social comedy. From her luxurious Italian villa overlooking the ghettos of Rome, a rich, miserly American widow extends her annual invitation to a poor young local couple for an evening of Scopone, the regional variant of bridge. Every year it's the same story: the old widow lends them money before ruthlessly winning it back, building their anticipation and then dashing their hopes for victory and a quick fortune. But this year the desperate Italian couple has been practicing their strategy, unaware that their pragmatic young daughter has been doing likewise, with different motives and with chilling consequences. The casting of Hollywood veterans Bette Davis and Joseph Cotton is relatively meaningless since their voices have been (poorly) dubbed into Italian, but the film is both sharp and lively, and the climactic showdown at the card table generates surprising intensity, too much to be simply funny.

nice, sad, predictable. gray, salted, seductive. a great cast. an ordinary story. crumbs from Visit of Old lady. and scene for extraordinary performance. a film about laws of poverty and people as toys. about power, cruelty and different worlds. about a game as root of so many feelings, emotions, hopes. and about the cold death of dreams. it can be a parable. or slice from reality. in fact, it is itself. a picture of a place. few characters. Bette Davis , Silvana Mangano , Joseph Cotten and irresistible Alberto Sordi around a table, playing cards. so, a meeting. a rite. shadow of life ashes. and strange image about your world. because it can be, in many senses, a manifesto. not about sins or fall, but about borders of gestures. cold, nice, seductive, bitter. a source of reflection. and testimony about a way without end.

Horror! The DVD is released without English subtitles. I've been talking about this superb Italian blackish comedy ever since I saw it for the first time. I was puzzled by the fact that such a beautifully made film, brilliantly written and with a cast that includes Bette Davis, Alberto Sordi, Joseph Cotten and Silvana Mangano wasn't some kind of "cult" classic in the States. It isn't because nobody knows about the existence of this jewel. Now, on DVD I hurried to buy as many copies I could find. What a great present for all those folks in the good old USA that have heard me talk about it and imitate Bette Davis saying "I want to play cards" in her death bed. Imagine my shock when I opened the DVDs to find out they didn't include subtitles. I was livid! I rushed back to the shop to return them. The shop manager, in typical Italian style, shrugged his shoulders like saying "What can I do about it" I'm really disappointed by whoever perpetrated this moronic release without any, if nothing else, commercial sense.