The first time you see this film, it might just pass you by as light-hearted, but the ending will force you to dwell on it. This is what happened to me. A closer look revealed that this is a profound, double-sided, paradoxical film. Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintagnant project opposite perspectives throughout the film, so that each scene contains both joy and sadness, intoxication and contemplation. As they drive from place to place, Gassman's life force is placed at a critical distance by Trintagnant's presence. Both performances are brilliant. A great film, poetic, bitter-sweet, unforgettable.

Actually it was a Lancia Aurelia B24 sport....It was one of the three main characters in this movie, so please let there be no misunderstanding about this marvelous car. The car represents the somewhat broken state Bruno is in when Roberto meets him. The paintwork is patched-up and the body is dented, but the the engine, character and spirit are still in top condition! Please also note that all the in-car shots were made on the road and not in the studio. This movie depicts how Italy in the beginning of the sixties was recuperating from the poverty resulting from war and fascism.(Great movie!!!)

16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
* 

Longer review to follow

Author: acerf from California
6 November 2002

I will only say for now, this is one SERIOUSLY GREAT MOVIE. Dino Risi must have been going through a good period in his life because never before or since have movies under his care (as Director) come out this well.

The story of a middle aged playboy and his short-lived, would be, apprentice, a shy student ... Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, are brilliant and 17 year old Catherine Spaak turns in a mind-blowing performance, surely the best "teenage" performance, ever, (think the Breakfast Club X 100) setting a very high, difficult bar for herself in the process.As the previous reviewer said, 10 out of 10; now if we can only get a real re-release, not a damn bootleg.

** You know you're watching a ground-breaking movie when a guy, the playboy protaganist, "exhuberant" throughout, suddenly gives the game away. It happens in a scene at a beach shower, where he is singing zestfully - "a man in love with life," and then suddenly stops altogether, the game up and shrugs his shoulder. I don't know such a thing had ever been tried before in all of Cinema. The stunning effect when Vittorio Gassman, as the playboy, drops the mask that all wear (in Italy, literally one's "second face") is overwhelming, like a pistol shot on a deserted street.

Groundbreaking in every way and not a little frightening, like a summer day suddenly ruined by an angry quarrel! (pick a metaphor). SEE IT!