Dino Risi is one of the most important directors in Italian cinema, from the Fifties to the Seventies. Generally he's recognized as one of the fathers of Italian comedy ("commedia all'italiana") -the expression doesn't mean that the movies make you laugh all the time, it means that stories are a mix of happiness and bitterness, as life is. And not always there's a happy ending.

Dino Risi worked with the "who's who" of Italian cinema, but he became famous also for casting frequently actors like Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi, Nino Manfredi and Alberto Sordi -they were ideal for characterizing Italian defects and virtues, above all defects...! "Profumo di donna" is taken from a book by Giovanni Arpino. In this 1974 movie Vittorio Gassman is a blind ex military officer who makes a trip from Genova to Naples. A young boy accompanies him. Fausto -Gassman's character- has to deal with the tragedy of being blind, he wants to commit suicide...

Fausto is a man who lost everything; he can feel the presence of a woman (which explains the title "Profumo di donna", in English "Scent of a woman") but doesn't want to be loved for pity.

It's difficult to describe a film which has a lot of themes -friendship, aging, the drama of being different from the others. But everything is treated in a delicate and moving way, although it's not a film for making you cry.

Vittorio Gassman performance is simply superb -he won a prize in Cannes in 1975. The picture got that same year an Academy Award nomination.

In 1992 Al Pacino starred in an American remake -"Scent of a woman", as I said the title is the exact translation from the Italian one. The actor won an Oscar but the film is not as good as the original. Apart from the extraordinary Pacino performance, everything is treated in a typical Hollywood way, with a more schematic story (for example the fact that the blind officer later helps his young companion is absent in the original film).

I suggest the people who only saw the Al Pacino version to see the Vittorio Gassman film -it's softer and more complex at the same time.

To us in the United States, the recognizable "Scent of a Woman" is Martin Brest's 1992 movie starring Al Pacino as a blind colonel and Chris O'Donnell as a student who accompanies him on a trip.* What we in the US might not know is that it was a remake of a 1974 Italian movie. "Profumo di donna" stars Vittorio Gassman as the captain and Alessandro Momo (who died in a motorcycle accident right after filming ended) as the young cadet accompanying him on a trip. There are some amazing things awaiting both men on this vacation.

The remake added a secondary story about a prank at the student's school. In the original, it's all about the freewheeling adventure that the cadet and captain have. Who wouldn't want to have the experiences that these two guys have? It's too bad that Momo died so young. I bet that he could've gone on to have a great career. In the meantime, check this one out. Some great stuff here.

*Also appearing were Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Rebhorn and Frances Conroy (Ruth on "Six Feet Under").

Given this film’s reputation (which soared even higher in the face of the overblown yet bland 1992 Americanization),it’s surprising that it took me so long to catch up with it. Being perhaps the recently-deceased director’s best-known work (though two more – THE EASY LIFE [1962] and IN THE NAME OF THE Italian PEOPLE [1971] – are, at least, equally as good),I chose it as the film with which to conclude my 7-film tribute to him. Coincidentally, it happened on the very day which marked the eight anniversary from the passing of its leading man – the great Vittorio Gassman!

The film (and its protagonist) deservedly received a number of accolades back in the day; it was also singled out to represent Italy in the Best Foreign-Language Film category at the 1975 Academy Awards ceremony where another nod went to the screenplay penned by Dino Risi and Ruggero Maccari. For the record, I’d watched Al Pacino’s Oscar triumph in the remake when it was new: I recall not being enthused with either the endless film (running 157 minutes against the original’s 100!) or the Method actor’s hammy performance. Anyway, for anyone not familiar with the later film, the plot concerns a young cadet being asked to accompany a blinded (yet proud and fun-loving) war veteran for a week; together, they go on a voyage (with the experienced man-about-town teaching the ropes to the rookie, who at first is displeased with the high-handed manners of his ‘charge’) – leading them to a girl, played by the luscious Agostina Belli, who’s devoted to Gassman. Earlier, the boy had discovered a photo of her among the blind man’s things (as well as a gun, whose purpose is revealed towards the end).

Along the way, the cadet (nicely played by Alessandro Momo) is given the task of organizing the veteran’s entertainment and relaxation – which, given Gassman’s debauched values, takes him to the low-life sectors of the cities they visit (one of the prostitutes who renders service is played by, of all people, famous circus owner/ex-peplum starlet Moira Orfei!). By the time they finally reach Belli and her entourage of willing girls ‘waiting’ on another team of crippled officer and naïve cadet, Gassman has become oddly despondent and rejects the girl’s advances; as it turns out, he and his buddy had intended to commit suicide – with the latter ending up in hospital due to a gun wound, while Gassman eventually loses his nerve and retreats with Belli and Momo to a house in the country-side! I don’t recall the 1992 version well enough but, here, it seems that Momo’s role is relegated to the sidelines once Belli turns up; incidentally, I believe that the remake was far more chaste than this!

Risi’s treatment of an undeniably original tale is somewhat low-key but nonetheless impressive – earthy yet insightful and thought-provoking, alternately funny and poignant – which is further graced with a simple but haunting melancholy score from Maestro Armando Trovajoli.