Fumo di Londra (1966)

Fumo di Londra: Directed by Alberto Sordi. With Alberto Sordi, Fiona Lewis, Amy Dalby, Alfredo Marchetti. Dante Fontana is an antique dealer of Perugia, and is infatuated with British culture. But he is always thwarted by his wife and relatives, who see him as a silly dreamer who gets lost in stories rather than doing serious work.

“u0026quot;Smoke over Londonu0026quot; (u0026quot;Fumo di Londrau0026quot;) is the very first feature of Alberto Sordi as director. The Roman was one of the best comic actors of the Italian cinema, he made many memorable films. (We donu0026#39;t have to forget that Federico Fellini made him a star: he chose Sordi for his first two features, u0026quot;Lo sceicco biancou0026quot; and u0026quot;I vitelloniu0026quot;.)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith this movie, in 1966, Sordi took a new challenge in his career -directing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDante Fontana (Sordi) is an Italian man in love with British culture and lifestyle. His dream is coming to the Swinginu0026#39;London and living like a typical Englishman -he will test the impossibility, for him, to be English…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlbertone (in Italy he was called in this way!) is funny and comical as always. Unfortunately his debut is not special -only a few exceptions of his self-directed movies are very good, like u0026quot;Polvere di stelleu0026quot; or u0026quot;Finché cu0026#39;è guerra cu0026#39;è speranzau0026quot;. The reason is that this movie sometimes is boring and loses speed. The way of directing is rather self-indulgent; Sordi loses time with many shots of London -it seems a postcard. Albertone loved filming stories outside Italy and the fault is always the same: focusing more on the environment than in the story. Itu0026#39;s a pity, itu0026#39;s like he wastes part of his performing energy.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSordi gives the best of himself when heu0026#39;s directed by someone else (for example Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, Vittorio De Sica, Luigi Comencini… in other words the Italian comedy big directors). In these contests he works in an excellent way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut Alberto Sordi is always nice and funny and the movie is not bad. I say OK for u0026quot;Smoke over Londonu0026quot; most for his actor than for the film itself.”