SUMMER WITH SORDI is an online comedy series celebrating the great actor Alberto Sordi (1920 – 2003) whose career spanned seven decades, establishing him as an icon in Italian cinema in both comedy and light drama.
Il Moralista directed by Giorgio Bianchi (The Moralista, 1959, 120 min.)
Starring Alberto Sordi and Vittorio de Sica, this comedy satirises both the upholders of traditional sexual morality and the exploiters.Augustino works as the General Secretary of the Social Morality Union and fights all kinds of mundane vices such as nudity in movies and commercials. He is incorrupt and unyielding. Unfortunately, the rigid professional ethics sabotages his private life. Meanwhile, his boss plans to marry off his unattractive 29-year old daughter…to Augustino.
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One of Italy’s most captivating and talented cinematic comedy stars, Italian veteran Alberto Sordi was known for satirizing his country’s social mores in pungent black comedies, farcical tales and grim drama. He, along with peers Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi, arguably represent the finest of post-war Italian cinema history. Born in Rome on June 15, 1920 in the Trastevere district, Sordi grew up in a musical family, his father being a tuba player for the Rome Opera House. A choir boy at the Sistine Chapel, he later trained for the theater in Milan but returned to Rome to work in radio and musical halls in comedy shows. In the late 30s he found his way into film as an extra. His first important role was in The Three Pilots (1942), a fascist war picture, but he wouldn’t hit international stardom until a decade later when he starred in Federico Fellini’s early films The White Sheik (1952) and I Vitelloni (1953). The titles of some of his most prolific characters were as simple as their titles: The Seducer, The Bachelor, The Husband, The Widower, The Traffic Cop, and The Moralist. Most of his protagonists amusingly, but not always pleasantly, stereotyped the worst attributes of Italian men and society, yet many of his films are unparalleled in quality and considered masterpieces. Sordi went on to star, direct and co-write more than 150 films. Never married and rather an introvert, he enjoyed a quiet, reclusive personal life. On his 80th birthday, he was made Mayor of Rome for the day. In 2002, after 190 films, he announced his retirement, and died of a heart attack the following year at age 82.
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Special video introduction by Alessandro Ago, Director of Programming and Special Projects at the USC School of Cinematic Art.