Title: The overcoat /
Authors: Lattuada, Alberto, 1914-2005,; Zavattini, Cesare, 1902-1989,; Rascel, Renato, 1912-1991,; Gogolʹ, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich, 1809-1852.; Audio Brandon Films.
Publisher: Audio Brandon,
Year: 1953
Subjects: Fur garments.; Bureaucracy.; Loneliness in old age.; Clerks Social conditions.; Dignity; Ghost plays; Wages.; Economics Sociological aspects; Coats; Italy Economic conditions Drama.
Abstract: An adaptation by Alberto Lattuada and Cesare Zavattini of Gogol's famous short story focusing on the life of a city hall clerk whose chief aspiration is a warm overcoat. Transposed to modern Italy, the film contains a memorable performance by Renato Rascel as the quiet clerk who is briefly elevated to a sense of importance by the possession of the furlined overcoat. Relying heavily on pantomime, Rascel captures the clerk’s daily frustration with his employer, and his elation after purchasing the overcoat. Comedy transitions to pathos as the clerk, basking in his new sense of pride discovers that his new coat has been stolen. Scriptwriter Zavattini was one of the most prolific writers of the Italian cinema. As in many of Zavattini's scripts the emphasis here is on the quotidien reality of ordinary individuals. Zavattini spent the postwar years working on what are now considered to be the milestones of Italian neorealist cinema.