Executive producer, Alessandro Calosci.
Executive producer, Alessandro Calosci.
Directed by Massimo Ceccherini. Screenplay, Ceccherini, Giovanni Veronesi. Camera (Cinecitta color), Mauro Marchetti; editor, Mirco Garrone; music, Demo Morselli; art director, Lorenzo D’Ambrosio; costume designer, Aldo Buti. Reviewed at Intl.Recording screening room, Rome, March 2, 1999. Running time: 94 MIN.
With: Massimo Ceccherini, Claudia Gerini, Alessandro Paci, Flavio Bucci, Cosetta Mercatelli, Carlo Monni, Tinto Brass.
Known for his demented-sidekick roles in top-grossers “The Cyclone” and “Fireworks,” actor Massimo Ceccherini turns director with “Lucignolo,” lazily reworked from his stage show inspired by characters from “Pinocchio.” A lackluster effort from the Cecchi Gori stable but a local hit nonetheless, grossing $ 5 million in three weeks, the sloppily made comedy has been embraced by certain Italian critics and intellectuals as a willfully abrasive affront to middle-class mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency. Beyond the most undemanding territories, others will find it merely vulgar and monotonous.
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Mixing fantasy with reality, the comedy centers on delinquent layabout Lucio (Ceccherini). Thrust into a retirement-clinic job, he falls for sexy head nurse Fatima (Claudia Gerini), enlisting his chum Pino (Ceccherini’s legit partner, Alessandro Paci) in an underhanded scheme to seduce her. The string of gags is punctuated by an increasingly bacchanalian recurring dream with Lucio on trial for excessive masturbation (director Tinto Brass supplies defense). Even the most seasoned cast members flounder in this unmodulated mess, while Ceccherini scores zero for filmmaking craft and lower still for wit.
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(COMEDY -- ITALIAN)
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