My Friends (film)

Plot

Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, "gypsy shenanigans") in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life.

Count Mascetti (Ugo Tognazzi) is an impoverished noble who has no means to support his family, but does not renounce high living pleasures anyway, and has an underage mistress, Titti (Silvia Dionisio). Perozzi (Philippe Noiret) is an easy-living journalist harassed by the unceasing disapproval of his wife and his son. Melandri (Gastone Moschin) is an architect employed by City Hall (for the preservation and restoration of the City's countless monuments), whose main goal is to find the ideal woman. Necchi (Duilio Del Prete) is the owner of a café and pool hall where the friends usually plan their zingarate.

During the movie, they are joined by a renowned, military-like surgeon, Sassaroli (Adolfo Celi), in whose clinic they recover after being hospitalized, injured after a mismanaged zingarata. Melandri falls in love with Sassaroli's wife, exclaiming "I've seen the Madonna!", only to discover she has psychological problems.

The plot is mostly composed of elaborate practical jokes organized by the friends, including the creation of a fake mafia mob in whose "criminal acts" they involve a pensioner, Righi (Bernard Blier), who used to snatch croissants from the cake tray in Necchi's café, and Mascetti's attempts to save his marriage despite his relationship with Titti. The film ends with Perozzi's death, which still does not deprive the friends of their desecrating hijinks, not even in face of their own mortality; Perozzi himself makes a last joke (a "supercazzola") to the priest. When Perozzi's wife, criticized by Melandri for her lack of tears, comments: "One can weep if somebody dies. But here nobody has died", Mascetti replies: "Well, in reality he had never been so much, but I liked him". During the funeral procession they "pay homage" to their dead friend by telling the wide-eyed Righi that Perozzi was killed for being a traitor to their mafia. Melandri starts sobbing, but not out of sadness, but out of laughter, because Righi believed the hoax. Even the friends begin to laugh, almost unable able to control themselves. Righi, believing that they are heartbroken over the loss, begins to be moved for real.

Cast

Other