Venezia, la luna e tu (Venice, the Moon and You). 1958. Italy. Directed by Dino Risi. Screenplay by Dino Risi, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa. With Alberto Sordi, Marisa Allasio, Nino Manfredi. In Italian; English subtitles. 107 min.
In Risi’s love letter to Carlo Goldoni’s popular 18th-century Venetian comedies of (bad) manners, Alberto Sordi is a gondolier with a girl in every port who becomes entangled in too many romances. While Sordi's seductive charms are overly focused on a pair of gamine American tourists, fellow motor-boatman Nino Manfredi threatens to steal away his childhood sweetheart. “It was deliberately colorful. It was a bit like a puppet theater. It was a nice way of making fun of tourist films at a time when they were all the rage” (Dino Risi). New 35mm print courtesy Luce Cinecittà.