1981-1990 Comedy Drama Italy Sergio Citti

Sergio Citti – Il minestrone (1981)

adminJuly 27, 2025

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Reviews:
1. A little forgotten masterpiece. This surreal comedy is one of those rare examples where the tragic and the hilarious are inseparable. Three homeless chaps from Rome spend their time scavenging rubbish or cheating local restaurants in order to secure their daily food. They accidentally end up in the Italian countryside where they get involved in a series of paradoxical situations, suffer delusions from extreme lack of nutrition while encountering bizarre people from every social stratum along the way. Despite the hilarious moments, there is understated pessimism and subtle misanthropy through out, the poor are barbaric and illiterate scum eager to kill you for a plate of soup, the rich are exploitative cruel bastards, the ‘saviour’ of the people is a deranged messiah-like figure in serum who leads them into a futile excursion up a mountain top. Great performance as usual by R.Benigni and nice score from N.Piovani. (orso-antinome from tumblr)

2. Dark comedy or joking Drama?
Il Minestrone is set in a disgruntled and poor Italy.
Three fellows roam together trying to get some food, but nothing seems to work…
Resources looks so scarce that even the character dialogues are limited, people usually come up with the same words, in a hopeless manner.
Set in a wasteland of dumpsters, ugly buildings and scraps of lost paradise countryland, this movie needs more attention and it’s quite relevant with current economics that it stings!
Is this a dark comedy or a joking drama? An interesting movie for sure under many aspects. (ebnerglands from CG)

3. I must say I’m not that Citti’s fan. Nevertheless, I’ve been very curious watching this rare movie. And, well it’s been a surprise. Despite of a poor photography, the actors and actresses starring, the plot, the poetry of images and words, made me think it was a little masterpiece. It’s more than a movie, a metaphor. The hunger, the hunger for all. The need for food, adventure, knowledge, dreams. And dreams in fact seem to satisfy more than food itself. Giorgio Gaber, Dario Benigni, Franco Javarone, Daria Nicolodi, the director Citti, Ninetto Davoli are metaphors themselves of a lost way of making cinema, and , in one word, of describing Italy. Gaber’s dry foolness, Javarone’s Neapolitan way of helping people, Nicolodi’s bourgeois sweetness, Benigni’s sense for dream react with poor, simple philosophy played by Davoli and Citti. A sweet poem, a gentle flower. (maravedis from IMDb)

File Name..............Il Minestrone - Sergio Citti - 1981
File Format.......................................AVI
Play Time.........................................171mn 47s
Total File Size...................................2106 MiB
Total Stream BitRate..............................5 168 Kbps
Frame Width.......................................640 pixels
Frame Height......................................480 pixels
Frame Rate........................................25.000 fps
Display Aspect Ratio..............................4:3
Codec (Human Name)................................MPEG-4 Visual

AUDIO
Codec.............................................MPEG Audio
Codec (FourCC)....................................55
Codec Profile.....................................Dual mono
Audio Stream Length...............................171mn 47s
Audio Stream BitRate..............................96.0 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................CBR
Number of Audio Channels..........................2
Sampling Rate.....................................44.1 KHz