For anyone who’s a fan of old movies as well as Italian cinema, there’s somewhat of a gem to be found in Alberto Lattuada’s film, Il Cappotto. The movie is based on Nikolai Gogol’s famous story, “The Overcoat,” which had been reimagined for present day Italy, which at the time was 1952.
The black and white movie, which has recently been digitally remastered for the 2012 release of the DVD, courtesy of the Italian film studio, Raro Video. The DVD contains plenty of details behind the film’s production, what led Lattuada to direct the film, as well as literary history behind Gogol as he was writing the original short story, which was published in 1843.
The movie stars Renato Rascel as the bumbling and unfortunate Carmine de Carmine, who is a terrible scribe, poor, and pretty much an embarrassment to himself. This changes when he comes into some money while being bribed to hide some details about the mayor’s political agenda; however, Carmine, who is desperate for a new coat, can finally afford to have one custom-made.
Gogol presents a very valuable lesson here about materialism, image, and the value of status. Lattuada’s film shows a simple man who is fraught with complications all. Carmine gets picked on and just when you think he’s finally going to find some happiness, the coat literally gets stolen off his back. The film takes a dark turn with a fairy-tale / fable quest for truth and justice behind the crooked political system that Carmine gets mixed up in.
The DVD includes informative commentary by Flavio de Bernardinis, Professor of film and film criticism at the University La Sapienza of Rome, which discusses the film’s importance to the coming-of-age of Italian cinema in the 1950s, as well as an interview with Angelo Pasquini, an Italian screenwriter and director, who discusses the interesting gothic / fantasy aspects of the film.
If you’re a fan of Gogol’s work, then this is a movie that you should see because what lacks in Italian literature for the time period is made up for in the cinematic interpretation of an internationally-renowned tale, with a subtle combination of mystery, allegory, and drama in a way that is often ignored in the current cinematic climate.
My rating: 5/10. Italian films had to start somewhere, and have since come a long way from this, but Il Cappotto offers a vintage fairy-tale quality with dark undertones, honoring the work of Gogol.
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