The Boom

1963 [ITALIAN]

Action / Comedy

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 65% · 7 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 65%
IMDb Rating

italy eyeglasses elevator

Plot summary

Sweet-sour comedy on Italy's 1950s rage to get rich as fast as possible! The businessman wants to satisfy his wife's craving for luxury and a "respectable life" so he becomes heavily indebted. In desperation he agrees to sell a precious part of his body for a large sum of money. But just before the crucial operation he panics...

Director

Vittorio De Sica Photo
Vittorio De Sica

Top cast

Maria Grazia Buccella Photo
Maria Grazia Buccella as Secretary
Alberto Sordi Photo
Alberto Sordi as Giovanni Alberti
John Karlsen Photo
John Karlsen as Occulist
Angelo Casadei Photo
Angelo Casadei as Man in the queue
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
818 MB
1280*682
Italian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   hr   cz   dk   nl   fi   gr   hu   it   no   pt   ro   ru   es   sv  
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 1
1.48 GB
1920*1024
Italian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   hr   cz   dk   nl   fi   gr   hu   it   no   pt   ro   ru   es   sv  
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by dbdumonteil

Let's make a deal.

It may well be Vittorio De Sica's best sixties (overlooked) movie.A very somber comedy,with Alberto Sordi on the top of his form.This movie has a contemporary feel:what could one person do to stay (or to become ) rich? A broke businessman is approached with a smile by a middle-aged lady (wife of a wealthy man) .He believes she wants to make him her lover .Little did he know she would ask for one of the most precious parts of his body (no,it is not what you are thinking of,but I won't write a spoiler and reveal what it is).Like Comencini's "Lo Scopone Scientifico" ,"Il Boom" deals with man's exploitation of his fellow man. De Sica ,Comencini and Dino Risi are much more accessible directors than Fellini or Antonioni but their words don't cut;they bite.
Reviewed by brogmiller 8 / 10

"Lei venderebbe un ochio?"

By the time Vittorio de Sica made his final masterpiece of neo-realism, 'Umberto D', that particular genre had pretty well become a spent force and like many directors he was to turn his critical gaze on Italian society by means of Commedia all'Italiana and there are few films of this type that are as searing and as savage as this.Written by his brilliant collaborator Cesare Zavattini and starring Alberto Sordi, this is a biting satire on Italy's so-called 'economic miracle' which in reality proved miraculous only for the few. The mordant wit is balanced by the pathos of the pitiable situation in which Sordi's spendthrift character finds himself. His high maintenace wife has taken their child and left and he is literally up to his eyeballs in debt. He is thrown a financial lifeline but one which requires a grotesque and scarcely believable trade off........Although Signor Sordi considered his best role to be in Dino Risi's scathing critique 'La Vita Difficile', for this viewer at any rate his portrayal here under de Sica's direction is one of his greatest and one in which he displays his mastery of comic desperation. His facial reaction to the offer made by the formidable Signora Bausetti is unforgettable. She is played by Elena Nicolai, making her first film appearance since retiring as one of opera's greatest mezzo sopranos. Her performance is a veritable tour de force and one is hardly surprised to learn that her operatic reputation was sufficiently high as to have a peak in Antarctica named after her! Perfectly cast as Sordi's beautiful but vacuous spouse is Gianna Maria Canale although 'dubbed' as usual.De Sica's pacing here is spot on whilst the film's farcical nature is underlined by Piero Piccione's jaunty score, not to mention a bizarre but nonetheless effective use of the jukebox hit 'Wheels'.Although too close to home on its release to be well received, in today's world of rampant consumerism and crippling debt it remains alarmingly relevant.
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