Big Deal on Madonna Street

Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) launched the commedia all'italiana, the bittersweet comic tradition that would dominate Italian cinema for two decades. It began as a direct parody of Jules Dassin's solemn heist classic Rififi, earned an Academy Award nomination, and is still one of the best-loved comedies ever made in Italy.

A glorious ensemble (Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, and the veteran Totò as a deadpan safe-cracking 'consultant') plays a band of Roman no-hopers plotting to rob a pawnshop through a shared wall. Each of them has his reasons for being desperate, and none of them has much idea of what he is doing. Monicelli gets his comedy from the gap between their grand criminal ambitions and their hapless reality, but he has real tenderness for these hungry, unemployed men, and the laughter always carries an undertow of hardship.

Its influence has been enormous: sequels, an American remake (Crackers), and a clear line of descent to caper comedies like Ocean's Eleven and beyond. It gives poverty and friendship as much care as it lavishes on the gags, and in doing so it set the template for a particularly Italian way of being funny and sad in the same breath. The slapstick is perfectly timed and the warmth has not faded in the decades since, and it routinely tops lists of the greatest Italian comedies.