2022 Italian Film Festival - Williamsburg Regional Library - Auditorium

presented by

The Colonial Italian American Organization (CIAO)

Il Sorpasso - 1962

The ultimate Italian road comedy, Il Sorpasso (The Overtaking) stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant as, respectively, a waggish, freewheeling bachelor and the straitlaced law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to Tuscany. An unpredictable journey that careens from slapstick to tragedy, this film, directed by Dino Risi, is a wildly entertaining commentary on the pleasures and consequences of the good life. The movie is considered one of the best examples of commedia all’italiana.

The story offers a poignant portrait of Italy in the early 1960s, when the "economic miracle" (dubbed the "boom" — using the actual English word — by the local media) was starting to transform the country from a traditionally agricultural and family centered society into a shallower, individualistic and consumerist one.

The movie’s title refers to the aggressive act of overtaking, or passing, on the highway. The paramount feature of Italian highway driving is “il sorpasso”. The word sorpassare means “to pass with an automobile” and “to surpass or excel.” To “sorpassare” is to excel socially, morally, sexually, and politically over someone. By the same token, to be sorpassato is to lose status, dignity, and reputation.

Dino Risi's masterful comic drama is an enduringly beloved hit in Italy, and one that's influenced Hollywood pictures as different as Easy Rider and Sideways.