lucio7 The last time a movie affected me so strongly during the show, I believe it was another Italian movie called "cannibal holocaust".If you've seen that movie, you know what I mean.But "Un borghese piccolo piccolo" is even more powerful because I expected a comedy till the point... Till the point the movie twists all of a sudden, unexpectedly, and the drama and sadness overwhelms you.The movie doesn't give up on the comedy side yet and there are some great touches like the mortuary room scene, but at this point it doesn't make you smile anymore but only further piles up to make you even queasier and uneasy.After that, a further twist: we start bordering on schizophrenia and insanity with a reflection on how a "normal little man" can be pushed to doing horrific things.I was watching it during a rainy evening and I had to stop to only resume it the day after.Will not forget this movie.

ExcentrifugalForz I saw this movie must be 30 years ago now, and I will never forget it. It is started out like comedy (that is exactly what you expect when Alberto Sordi is in main role), but it turned into a real life horror very quickly. Many things you will see in this movie are real - taken from the life in Rome (at least I think that was Rome) at that time. The reality of the settings and physiological terror the main characters are experiencing make a lasting impact here. I am waiting for this movie to come out on DVD, but it is not happening for now. If you have an opportunity to see it, do not miss it. You will never forget it.

arzewski The genius of this film is the use of comedy (so commonly used during the 50's) to inject into a drama. The madly commuter travails, squeezing the tiny Fiat 500 through traffic, getting a spot, fighting with the doorman who has to write you up because you're one minute late in entering the Ministry office. This movie is very "Rome" because of the bureaucratic offices there, the same could be said of "Washington DC". The secret meeting the previous commenter mentions is not a underground fascist meeting, but a Mason's secret meeting, sort of a secret handshake or sect that bureaucrats and other insular bodies of government rely on to enforce a "code" of behavior or lifestyle. In fact, the Mason's chief is somewhat disappointed with the main character for not following the Mason's funeral style for the burial of the killed son. So, one watching this film laughs and laughs, and then it gets serious. Even psychological, but almost to reveal a hidden secretive psychological side that society condemns, but that, in secret, an individual manifests. Like torturing sadistically the killer. And at the end, as the image zooms out, one is left alone and indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd in a sea of humanity. Here in the US, it is not available on DVD, but I found it in libraries in VHS.

ottavio I saw this film only once in Italy in 1983 and I swear the whole city I was visiting shut down that evening to view this film. I was long-accustomed to Alberto Sordi playing the comedic clown in his films but THIS film is a cross between a light-hearted Italian comedy and Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. In fact, the moment I view the torture of the policeman scene in Reservoir Dogs I immediately remembered watching Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo so long ago. Alberto Sordi plays a Roman bureaucrat desperate to get his son a job with the Roman municipal government - even going to the extent of attending an underground Fascist meeting (although vehemently anti-Fascist) to run elbows with bureaucrats on the hiring board. Shortly thereafter, during a botched bank robbery where Sordi and his son are literally at the wrong place at the wrong time, the son gets killed by machine gun fire by fleeing bandits. At this point the film is no longer a comedy. Sordi memorizes the features of the gunman and ends up tracking him down and then sadistically torturing him, tied to a chair at his cottage, in retribution for his son's murder. Disturbing stuff indeed that had you glued to the television set. A film I will never forget and WOULD LOVE to get a hold of on DVD. SAdly, an overlooked film starring Alberto Sordi but 'ya never know - perhaps Quentin Tarantino may release it again to a North American audience? Speriamo...