The Icicle thief

In his ingenious comedy, Nichetti has takena wide-eyed look at Italian cinema, past and present, and has staggered back from the vision, his mind brimming with invention. On one hand, there’s Italy’s hallowed neo-realist past; grainy, black-and-white postwar images full of stubbled, unemployed fathers, sacrficial mothers and brave bustling priests. On the other, there are the television shows that “present” these films: a wasteland of lofty critics, only too willing to interpret a director’s deepest motives and intentions- even to the director himself. Nichetti has created a hilarious movie that mixes the world of cinema and television into a comic masterpiece.