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PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Ettore Scola
Script :
Ettore Scola, Silvia Scola, Furio Scarpelli, Giacomo Scarpelli
Photography :
Franco di Giacomo
Editor :
Raimondo Crociani
Cast :
Vittorio Gassman, Fanny Ardant, Giancarlo Giannini, Stefania Sandrelli, Marie Gillain, Antonio Catania, Francesca d'Aloja, Riccardo Garrone, Nello Mascia, Eros Pagni, Adalberto Maria Merli, Rolando Ra
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THE DINNER
Each table in the busy trattoria has its own story. While a nervous young woman, her sympathetic brother and her stone-hearted father compose a typically dysfunctional Italian family at one table, a Japanese tourist couple seem to get along quite well with their electronic game-playing young son. Ernesto, a shy, toupee-headed loner, has a party magician at his table for company under the watchful eye of gentleman-philosopher Maestro Pezzulo. A philandering professor gives his young student-lover the bad news about their relationship at one table, and a gaudy, ostentatious divorcee at another table gets similarly unwelcome news from her prim, shabbily-dressed daughter, when the latter informs her that she intends to become a nun. Other diners include a tableful of wealthy storekeepers and their wives who combine business and pleasure -- not to mention some discreet extramarital flirting -- among the ringing of cellphones, and a group of teenagers still blissful in their ignorance. Mistress of these gastronomic ceremonies is the restaurant operator, Flora, whose own relationship with a customer is on the verge of collapse but still keeps the meals coming, and the diners from each other's throats, with a never-failing aplomb.
Ettore Scola
Born in Trevico, Italy in 1931, Ettore Scola studied law in university but he was already embarked on a career in the cinema, in particular screenwriting. He contributed to the scripts of scores of film comedies in the early '50s and in 1954 he received his first screen credit for his screenwriting. Scola made his directorial debut in 1964 in the episodic comedy LET'S TALK ABOUT WOMEN. With INSPECTOR PEPE in 1969, he signaled a shift toward a more profound treatment of social subjects, a concern that has run through virtually all his films since. Selected filmography: THE PIZZA TRIANGLE (1970), WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH (1974), DOWN AND DIRTY (1975), A SPECIAL DAY (1977), THE TERRACE (1979), LA NUIT DE VARENNES (1982), THE BALL (1983), MACARONI (1985), THE FAMILY (1987), SPLENDOR (1989), CAPTAIN FRACASSA'S JOURNEY (1990), MARIO, MARIA E MARIO (1992), ROMANZE DI UN GIOVANE POVERO (1995).
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