Dario Fo Movies

In 2003, the first episode of Italian comedian Sabina Guzzanti's satirical comedy program, RAIot, aired on RAI3. Guzzanti mocked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a startlingly effective impersonation (she is an attractive woman; he is not), and ridiculed the corruption and passivity of the Italian political system, left and right, that has enabled Berlusconi to gain so much power over Italy's broadcast media. Almost immediately, Berlusconi's media company filed a massive defamation suit against RAI. The suit would later be declared frivolous by a judge, but RAI, apparently knowing on which side its bread is buttered, used it as an excuse to cancel the troublesome program before another episode could air. RAI execs who had previously lauded Guzzanti's comedic skills and expressed excitement about the program now seemed to think of her as a menace. Politicians and pundits (from the right and the left) offered Guzzanti odd definitions of satire, including the notion that it "should make politicians appear more human," in order to demonstrate that what Guzzanti was doing was not satire, which would presumably be protected by Italy's free speech laws, but an inappropriate political diatribe. Guzzanti responded by making this documentary, Viva Zapatero!, in which she examines the current state of the Italian media, and the frightening degree to which it is controlled by Berlusconi, interviewing both her opponents and Italian journalists and entertainers whose careers have suffered due to perceived slights against the prime minister. She also speaks with satirists and journalists from other parts of the world, who express shock and revulsion at the extent to which dissent has been stifled on Italy's airwaves. Viva Zapatero! had its New York premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Three unlikely companions spend the day together traversing a city which has been declared an emergency area. They are a little girl with an active fantasy life, a Zen-spouting mechanic, and an elderly professor. Together, they traverse the city and overcome the obstacles of roadblocks, etc., as they seek to get the professor to the hospital. Perhaps in homage to the Ingmar Berman film Smultronstallet, or Wild Strawberries, at the end of the film we see that these events are the professor's memories as he lies in his hospital bed. It is not clear which memories were based on real events, and which were hallucinatory. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

As the title indicates, this Renato Rascel vehicle is a takeoff of the Jules Dassin "caper" film Rififi. Rascel plays a nightclub owner who falls in with a gang of thieves, headed by quirky mastermind Dario Fo. After several comic preliminaries, the gang embarks upon a meticulously pre-planned jewel robbery. Not surprisingly, with Rascel involved, the plan does not exactly go off like clockwork. For those not interested in comedy or crime melodrama, Rascel-Fifi offers the considerable charms of the pulchritudinous Franca Rame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide