Fumo di Londra | |
Director: | Alberto Sordi |
Starring: | Alberto Sordi |
Music: | Piero Piccioni |
Cinematography: | Benito Frattari |
Editing: | Antonietta Zita |
Producer: | Giorgio Bianchi |
Runtime: | 131 min |
Country: | Italy United Kingdom |
Language: | English Italian |
Fumo di Londra (internationally released as Smoke Over London and Gray Flannels) is a 1966 Italian comedy film written, directed and starred by Alberto Sordi. For his performance Sordi won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.[1] This movie marked the directorial debut of Alberto Sordi.
Dante Fontana is an antique dealer from Perugia infatuated with the culture of the British upper classes. His wife and relatives mock him and snub him, seeing him as a silly daydreamer doing no serious work. Unfussed, Dante plans a vacation to London to learn more about the culture he so admires. However, once in London, he struggles to fit in, is awkward, often makes mistakes betraying his Italian origins, attracting the scorn of the British upper classes he would like to impress. After taking part in fox hunting, Dante is invited to the house of an English aristocrat and showed a supposedly ancient Etruscan statuette. Dante says the object is fake and breaks it, provoking the angry reaction of the English who open fire on him. Terrified, Dante hides with a group of hippies and joining them in a demonstration. Arrested, Dante is sent back to Italy where he resumes his monotonous routine.
Belvoir Castle was the location (as country-house of the Duchess of Bradford).