In this black-comic masterpiece, director Pietro Germi delivers a diabolically subversive satire of the Italian family structure, Catholic piety, and male chauvinism. Sending up his own suave image, Marcello Mastroianni stars as the middle-aged scion of a faded aristocratic Sicilian family who pines after his younger cousin (Stefania Sandrelli). The problem: he’s married, in a country where divorce is illegal. Cue the murderous fantasies that drive him down an increasingly deranged path of self-delusion and self-destruction. Laying bare the absurd contradictions of bourgeois morality with each audacious twist, Germi serves up an acerbic portrait of a tradition-bound culture colliding with the unstoppable force of modernity.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
The Man with a Cigar in His Mouth, a documentary by critic Mario Sesti featuring interviews with longtime friends and collaborators of director Pietro Germi’s
Interviews with Sesti and actors Lando Buzzanca and Stefania Sandrelli
Interview with screenwriter Ennio De Concini
Screen tests with Sandrelli and actor Daniela Rocca
PLUS: An essay by film critic Stuart Klawans