commedia all'italiana

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"Commedia all'italiana (i.e. "Comedy in the Italian way" ,,,) or Italian-style comedy is an Italian film genre. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) in 1958 and derives its name from the title of Pietro Germi's Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce Italian Style, 1961).

Rather than a specific genre, the term indicates a period (approx. from the late fifties to the early seventies) in which the Italian film industry was producing mainly brilliant comedies, with some common traits like satire of manners, farcical and grotesque overtones, a strong focus on "spicy" social issues of the period (like sexual matters, divorce, contraception, marriage of clergies, the economic rise of the country and its various consequences, the traditional religious influence of catholic Church) and a prevailing middle-class setting, often characterized by a substantial background of sadness and social criticism that would dilute the comic contents." (wikipedia)