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 Neo-realism meets the caper film, with solid and stylish results Oct 02, 2009
The caper or heist film is surely the second most universally popular subset of the crime genre after the murder mystery, and I wonder if it was ever more in vogue, and more interesting artistically, than in the years after the huge success of GRISBI and RIFIFI. The late 50s and early 60s saw Melville's BOB LE FLAMBEUR, TOPKAPI, the early Pink Panther movies, and this fine neo-realist/comic effort from Monicelli, a director I've not heretofore been familiar with.
It's a rather odd film, with many shifts in tone and a rambling plot that really doesn't coalesce into anything approaching the crime story you might expect until about halfway through. A group of small-time crooks and ex-cons, among them Peppe (Vittorio Gassman), Dante (Toto), and Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni) hit upon a plan to rob a pawnbroker's safe by going through the wall of a neighboring apartment while the tenants are away; but they are clearly so incompetent and half-hearted about the whole thing that we never really believe they're going to get anywhere with their plans. The real drama to the story lies in wondering just when and how they'll get caught and who will go to jail; the real miracle will be if they get away without losing anything, let alone winning through.
It's a portrait of a still desperately poor Italy just a few years after the war....there are still old, war-torn, decrepit buildings everywhere and the new ones we see going up are as ugly as anything being built in Poland at the time....everybody seems to know someone in prison or be a parolee him/herself.....so the comedy has a sombre edge to it, despite the presence of the farcical Toto, and the young and garrulous Mastroianni. Look for a very young Claudia Cardinale in a small role as well. Beautifully shot in a low-rent way in B/W by Gianni di Venanzo.
I should note that this Criterion edition doesn't have much of anything in the way of extras (trailer, that's it) and the titles aren't the greatest. Not on the whole one of their better releases, and though I wouldn't call this film a masterpiece exactly, it deserves better.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
We could all afford to be more Italian. Aug 26, 2009
Ostensibly a send-up of the French caper classic, "Rififi," "Big Deal on Madonna Street" actually IS a big deal. Personally, I found plenty of humor in the leak-proof, exhilarating predecessor, so the ironic meaning of "Big Deal" seems off the mark if the intention is to mock the childish, self-destructive games of professional jewel thieves. "Madonna" is big in a more literal sense--physical, outrageous comedy that nevertheless manages to distinguish each of its unforgettable characters, balancing slapstick and surprise with humanism and pathos.
A film like this, moreover, could be made only by an Italian, or an Italian-American such as Frank Capra. It's as distant from the Teutonic Hamlet-like brooding of Bergman or the achingly, ceremonial slow pace of Kurosawa or Ozu as you can get. And it makes American comedies and buddy pictures, at least since "Animal House" and "Butch Cassidy," seem like big klutzes by comparison. From Capra to Fellini, Italian cinematic sensibility is essentially positive, upbeat, communal and comic, even if, as Rossellini and de Sica remind us, the social order is subject to the iron-clad materialistic challenges of living (just as the isolated protagonist we find in other national cinema is bound to a code of some noble personal order essential to self-actualization). No cinema--not even Russian--seems more open to Marxist theoretical approaches than Italian (it's Bedford Falls, not George Bailey, that proves the true hero--or antagonist, as the case may be).
There's an additional reason to see this film as more than a send-up, merely, of a predecessor movie. "Big Deal," like "Riffi," has a moral and a message, which comes down to something like "Never give into the machine let alone become one yourself." Like both Chaplin and Keaton, whose best films are also the result of painstaking, meticulous mechanical engineering (both filmmakers go for broke to 1. mechanize the human, as in the famous conveyor belt scene of "Modern Times," and to 2. humanize the mechanical, as in the tarnished but never defeated Confederate locomotive run by Buster). Mario Monicetti emulates the two founding fathers of film comedy in his attention to the details of editing, mis en scene, and acting. And he recalls both the essentially comic vision and communal emphases of his fellow countryman, Frank Capra, in his construction of a little society that is (more or less) functional, "democratic" and, above all, living!
Trust the French to be existential about the inescapable and perennial problem of greed and its empty deserts; the Italians, on the other hand, take it more in stride. No tragic potential here but plenty of misfortune--along with sadness that this vital and vibrant community, even though a dubious lot of thieves, in the end simply can't hold it together. But it's important to note that they retain their "integrity"--they're not about to submit to the indignity of "work" (a cake walk compared to all they've suffered while trying to make their fortunes the "easy," or illicit, way). Like "The Bicycle Thief" they are ultimately out of work, not to mention friends; the difference is that this rag-tag motley crew with a not-so-magnificent obsession is too shielded from the Marxist reality (that seems to occupy the margins of every Italian film) to understand "why" their failed caper should be a big deal. A disappointment, to be sure. Yet the viewer leaves with the feeling that it's all simply another day's work--or, more accurately, play--in the lives of Falstaff and company. It's not Henry V: it's neither the end of Falstaff nor the triumph of the social-economic forces that will eventually lead to his dismissal. But it's a heck of a good time for viewers of any ethnicity, race, class, or gender.
[As the above paragraph suggests, "Big Deal on Madonna Street" demands a sequel. And it gets it 20+ years later, once again featuring Marcello Mastroianni. But if it's a revisionary send-up, or parody, that you're looking for, try De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" followed immediately by Maurizio Nichetti's "The Icicle Thief"--two films that are a half century and worlds apart yet, upon reflection, offer a comparison that suggests the post-modern milieu of the present is not necessarily superior to the depressed post-World War Italy captured by De Sica's neo-realist classic.]
"Stealing is a serious profession. You need serious people, not people like you." Jul 19, 2009
If you're a fan of French caper films like RIFIFI or BOB LE FLAMBEUR then you have to check out BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET. A small time career criminal is on the verge of the job of a lifetime when he's pinched for trying to steal a car. The window of opportunity on his caper is short so if he doesn't get out of jail quick the whole thing is blown. With the help of his small gang of criminals they come up with a plan. Thing is they're all as bumbling as he is.
I don't want to ruin it by saying too much, but I enjoyed this film from beginning to end. There was never a pause in the stupidity and all of the characters were well defined with their own personalities and quirks. It's not a laugh riot, but well worth watching. Also the picture on the Criterion DVD was really nice.
If you enjoyed Woody Allen's SMALL TIME CROOKS then a lot of this film will feel familiar because he borrowed quite a bit from this story. Also one of the crooks is played by the great Marcello Mastroianni who three years later would be the lead in one of my favorite comedies DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE.
 The real deal, will make you laugh for sure Apr 02, 2009
I didn't know about the movie which this one parodied - I only saw that from the other reviews. But one thing I can say for sure: this movie will make you laugh. You don't need to know the culture, and you don't need to know the subtler aspects of how it relates to other films of that period and country. Just watch the heart- breakingly, funnily inept crooks in action.
Highly recommended. Of course, it's worth watching many times, and I plan to see it again after watching the related movies.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Comedy of Errors May 04, 2008
I might be stretching it a bit to give "Big Deal on Madonna Street" a 5 star rating but I rounded it to the nearest score. I did so because of the understated quality of the humor in the movie. I was rather easily led along the story line which got more and more complicated as each minor difficulty resulted in another misdirection. By the time the movie was in full swing, the twists, turns and obstacles kept things hopping.
The acting and directing were very good. There are some familiar names and a lot of new actors (to an American audience). The beauty of the movie is the seriousness of the players contrating to the inanity of the script. This is a movie that movie lovers ought to see at least once in their lives; just for the fun of it.
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