Mario Monicelli embodied my personal ideal of filmmaker: prolific, wit, kind and committed to comedy.
He wrote for himself and for others, directed the best European actors of his time and on my arbitrary opinion he is the real father of 'Comedy Italian Style'.
The present title is an incredibly pleasant 2-hour piece that celebrates the feminine way of dealing with life compared with the stressful / sometimes overbearing and selfish ways of males.
As I stated in the Title, I think this was the last great movie from the master, who was 71 at the time: he went on directing a dozen more flicks in the following 20 years but the present title is the last I feel worthy of comparison with Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), The Great War (1959) or Il Marchese del Grillo (1981).
I know that Italy had Fellini, Rossellini, Visconti and many other great directors, I'm aware that Monicelli never won an Oscar (he was nominated 6 times) but his movie list is outstanding and everything he did shows such grace and such a natural and unaffected style that I'm sure people will love his timeless classics forever.
Enjoy.