La mortadella

Mario Monicelli (b. 1916), the great comedy director who has been convulsing Italian audiences for over 5 decades, directs Sophia Loren on this caustic caricature on aspects of the American culture, like the "religious" enforcement of some funny laws such as the one - now revoked- that used to ban the import of Italian salami on the grounds that it could kill North Americans, the American government phobia for any bad press image, the workaholism of some people who needs lots of Scotch to fight off stress and than lots of "waking pills" to turn on again, as well as the dilemma and drama of a recently arrived Italian immigrant who tries to renegade his own cultural habits to become "a good American". Sophia Loren acts just great in this movie. As a word of caution, I would say that "comedies don't get exported" and only a few Americans who possess a very fine sense of humor might enjoy (or even grasp at all) some caustic critiques of their own culture. This might help explain why this movie has such an unusual voting distribution in the US, with several 10's and 0's, "love" or "hate" judgments...