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"Una vita difficile" is an Italian black-and-white movie from 1961. This one was directed by Oscar nominee Dino Risi, written by highly prolific Rodolfo Sonego (a bit unusual for Italian films from this era to have only one writer) and features Golden-Globe winning lead actor Alberto Sordi, whose life is mentioned in the movie title here. It runs for almost 2 hours and is in black-and-white. I will not go further into detail about the rest of the cast and crew or about the film's awards attention, you can check both for yourself if you care here on imdb. Lets move right into the film, just like the film really moves right into action immediately. No lengthy introduction or so, but we see the protagonist Silvio Magnozzi right away under constant threat of losing his life as he is part of the resistance against the Nazi regime during the days of World War II in Italy. And he is basically caught by a German officer right away and put to a wall ready to be shot before the 10-minute mark here. But this is when Elena comes into play as she rescues him by killing the German officer with an iron and saving the main character's life. And this deed was the introduction to her character that stays always a factor in this pretty long movie, even if there are sequences when she disappears for a while. Eventually, the two end up married, having a son even and seemingly overcoming all kinds of struggles that involve break-ups, other partners as well as addiction. So there is definitely a dramatic component to this movie, which may be occasionally forgotten because of all the comedy moments and they sure are frequent enough to an extent when I would even say that this is despite everything else that it is most of all a comedy. I will mention a few moments that made me laugh and that's probably not even 5% of all the comedy included in here. Pay attention to the lengthy scene that includes Gassmann and other Italian film greats playing alternate versions of themselves on the set of a Roman classic. Hilarious stuff there and so much ahead of its time. Gervais, David and LeBlanc still make that formula work today. Here it works as well. Another moment, a man gets rescued by a woman before he gets killed, briefly afterward we see him try to grab her butt. She is initially not for it, but in the next scene we see the two in bed and find out he spend weeks there already with her doing nothing. Then there is of course the main character's best friend, who really seems to have a soft spot for younger women and with that I mean those who are barely legal. Then near the end, there is the moment near the pool, actually seeing this shot was hilarious already, even funnier than seeing actually one guy being pushed in it because you knew exactly what would be happening next in the sense of looking forward to it. And finally, one more moment about when he has not seen his wife for a while at one point, then walks by as i he couldn't care less and next she says oh he will be back and the exact second he shows up at the table where she sits with her friends. Or when they carry the corpse away at the very beginning. Or just the scene when he returns to her place and she acts reluctantly, but had it all planned already that she would leave immediately with him to his home in Rome. By the way when we see him at the very beginning, something about the music and soundtrack came to mind. This really could have been a more dangerous and suspenseful thriller scene with other music playing, but what they actually picked as he walks through the streets and hides there, shows that comedy was omnipresent here and they did not want to get the film too serious.

This would be some of the comedy, there is much more like I said. The last reference I made also can be seen that even with how confusing and sometimes divided their relationship may seem, she always had/has a soft spot for him. She leaves her home, mother and a rich guy who was supposed to marry her. She risks her own life by killing that German Nazi officer for the man she ends up desiring. And it is not the biggest surprise we see the two at the end leave together when they realize the party and the way he is treated there is not the place to be. It was kinda cute. Nice closure. And about the main character, it needs to be said that he may not be the most reliable guy and always acts a bit like a clumsy fool, but there are aspects about him that are respectable and maybe also the reason why Elena cannot get away from him. The perfect example early on is when he leaves her behind secretly, but he does so because he is still on a mission politically, even if yes he may have gotten a bit tired of her. How he speaks of her as an old woman who has gotten a bit too close was fun as well. Or of course the gigantic financial he rejects in order not to sacrifice his journalistic integrity. Or when he ends up in jail as a political prisoner, misses the first months of his son's life and ends up in solitary confinement after trying all he can to get better conditions into effect for the other prisoners. Another fun moment there with the cocaine guy next to him. So yes, you don't have to look to far to find dramatic relevance in here. A mix of comedy and drama was nothing extraordinary at all for the defining films of that era over half a century ago, not at all, but looking at how much history is in here, this is a bit unusual, but they handled it well. First of all the Nazi occupation, then the prosecution because he wrote what he thought was right, then the uprising, the end of the monarchy. These are all defining factors in the main character's life. And eventually, there are also brief references about Stalin's death and the Cold War with the imminent danger of an atomic bomb explosion. These were not elaborated any further on in detail, but that is fine because the film took place in Italy, not in the Soviet Union or any of the places that were in imminent danger of the Cold War turning into a hot war. So it's also a bit of a nice history lesson. But the best thing is they never lost the entertainment value. The end of the monarchy scene is the best example. I mean that dinenr table sequence was absolute comedy gold and probably the best moment of the film altogether. From beginning to end when only the two are left at the table ready to received their wine from the waiter with hilarious music playing at the same time. Speaking about wine, there is also a more serious side to this film, namely alcoholism. The latter poses probably the very biggest threat to Roberto and Elena's on-and-off relationshipand there is one scene in particular when he is drunk and says some not so nice things to her when I thought this could be it. But in the end, they always manage to get together again somehow, perhaps also because of their son. I will not gu any further into detail about the alcoholism parts, but with a case like that in my close family, it was probably the one aspect that moved me the most here and it was sad to see it all breaking apart with how he keeps misbehaving in public and following her. This is also when basically all the comedy was gone for a while. You could see that the filmmakers were eager to make a statement there. The only moment that came perhaps slightly close to comedy was when we hear the shepherd's words, but also not too much, not too funny really.

So all in all, cast and crew did a really amazing job here depicting the protagonist's difficult life, some of it caused by himself, other developments not so much. This is perhaps my favorite film from he many Italian comedy films from the 1950s and 1960s, one of the defining eras for sure for this country's cinema and if you know many great and also very highly-rated films here on imdb stem from this epoque, then you know what this means. A bit of a pity this one here did not receive as much awards attention as some of the others as it is really top-notch. Also has to do obviously with this movie not being submitted to the Oscars by Italy and a few other decisions. But lets not focus too much on the (lack of) awards attention right now. This film we got here was shown on the occasion of a film retrospective about Comedia all'italiana and I am glad I got a chance to catch this on the big screen again, maybe a unique opportunity. If you manage to have the same, then do not miss out. It's a really brave and highly entertaining film and I believe you absolutely shhould see it, also at home on the small screen if you are not as lucky as myself. It is very obvious why people such a long time later still speak so highly about Dino Risi and Alberto Sordi. This film is a perfect exhibit for how their great legacy lives on. Big thumbs-up from me and don't be fooled by the poster here on imdb that looks a bit more serious than the film actually is and it is also not that much about war and the military, really just early on and mostly in order to depict how the two protagonists met each other. But it is interesting that it hasn't even been 20 years when this film was made since the end of World War II and now it is basically ages ago. At least it feels like that for me. Okay, lets not drift away. Another all-time great Italian movie talks about how life is beautiful despite also depicting what life is like at its most difficult and this "A Difficult Life" from 1961 is a film you absolutely want to watch. One of the best movies of its year, not just from Italy, but in general counting all films and countries made. Highly recommended.