Avanti!

Rating:
Summary: Sleeper romantic comedy: Lemmon and Mills make this classic
Review: With "Senza Fina" as the musical theme we've got a top rate romantic comedy in "Avanti!" Jack Lemmon arrives in Italy to get his father's corpse back to the US in time for the funeral to be viewed by 200,000 people on closed circuit TV (black and white in Puerto Rico). The jokes reference the time (1972) as the pilot in flight tells a State Department guy, "Greece is on the far left" "Not while I'm in the State Department". And Jack Lemmon's earily relevant gripe: "Goddamn Ralph Nader".

But what really makes this film is Juliet Mills who just came off the show, "Nanny and the Professor" and proves herself here as the weight-conscious lass who wins Lemmon's heart...and ours. It seems her mother and Lemmon's father had a 10 year affair at the hotel whose manager played by Clive Revill takes care of all the arrangements (What would Lemmon do without him). Meanwhile the porter is trying to blackmail Lemmon with compromising photos. Lemmon can no longer resist Mills charm.
"Permesso?" "Avanti!" 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Billy Wilders last masterpiece
Review: ***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

Bruno, the hotel valet, bringing Wendell Armbrusters shorts, which he lost during a swim in the mediterranean sea: "Your shorts. They washed up on the beach".
Wendell: "What makes you think they are my shorts?"
Bruno: "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they belong to the young lady?"

Carlucci, the director of the hotel, handing Wendell over some incriminating polaroids which capture the same incident: " The black socks. Is it because you are in mourning?"

Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills) is in high spirits: Wendell Armbruster jr. (Jack Lemmon), vice-president of Armbruster industries has invited her for dinner. In remembrance of their parents, lately deceased, they eat the same supper their dear departed would have had, clink glasses with the same drinks and hear the same music. Next morning, at sunrise, they take a bath in the nude. Pamela is so cheerful that she even forgets her little weight-problem. Later, when she returns to the hotel, she is aggreeably surprised to hear that all her luggage has been brought in his room...Well, he's an american, and they are known to express their wishes very directly, so she hurries to his room to unpack. He's sitting in the tub and she scolds him a little ("I don't mind being treated like a sex-object") while she hangs her dresses in his wardrobe. As he rises from the tub she gets a close view of the pleasures she's so eagerly looking forward to, and takes the offensive...He discourses about things, a pregnant house-maid, a faithless lover, police...Now hotel director Carlucci (Clive Revill) enters: Yes, there has been a murder in Pamelas room. Everything is wiped clean now, we can carry her luggage back...

Poor Pamela has been the victim of the most embarrassing misunderstanding and Billy Wilder has given us perhaps the funniest seduction scene in film history.

Yes, this is Billy Wilders last masterpiece, one of Lemmons finest performances, and Juliet Mills Wilders most romantic heroine since Audrey Hepburn. ....

The scene where Wendell and Pamela have to identify their parents bodies in the morgue is one of the highest points in Wilders career. The shot has been compared with a painting by Vermeer. While the noisy coroner ("He eats very well. He knows all the widows") performs his duties, Wendell tries to back out of the business without financial loss (He thinks his fathers mistress was a kept woman). ... - I repeat: This is a comic masterpiece - Every film-connaisseur must worship the scene where Wendell makes small-talk to Pamela (whom he suspects), about weight problems, psychotherapy, breast-implants, while at the same time he searches her room for the missing human remains. (In the shower? under her bed?)

And what do we do with the scene, where know-all-Wendell is completely bamboozled by the glib reasoning of the Trotta family (just part-time members of the maffia) over the ransom for those same remains? (Carlucci: "I couldn't have handled it better myself")

I won't give away the ending. Suspense is part of the fun in this film. But you should know, that, when it comes to sheer laughter, Avanti is Wilders funniest film (together with "Irma la douce" and "The fortune cookie"), even funnier than "Some like it hot", AFI's nr.1 comedy (But remember, "Tootsie" was their nr.2).

It is also Wilders most gorgeous looking film (Along with "The private life of Sherlock Holmes"), Here, Wilder, usually at his best in black and white really learned to love color. This film will even appeal to the "Pretty Woman" audience: It is his most romantic film since his work with Audrey Hepburn. There is a scene, where Lemmon takes possession of the photos: His first reaction is to cut them to pieces. Suddenly a detail attracts his attention. He takes a close look, likes what he sees, puts the pieces together - and falls in love.

The soundrack is glorious. ("Italy is not a country. It's an emotion").

To describe the performances of Lemmon, Mills and Revill (a true original) would mean to heap every conceivable superlative on them.

THIS FILM IS A MUST-SEE

P.S: Yes, there are nude scenes. The water in the gulf of Naples is perfectly transparent. But Lemmon demonstrates his artistic skills as contortionist. Put the out-takes in...

Rating:
Summary: Looking for love in all the right places...
Review: Accidently caught this late night movie while channel surfing in a hotel room on a freezing London night far from home and nursing a cold.I was enchanted as I'd never heard of it.Jack Lemmon as Wendell Armbruster and Juliet Mills as Pamela Pigott give convincing portrayals of a millionaire american and a working class englishwoman come to Italy to retrieve the bodies of his father and her mother,who unknown to their families had been lovers for years and had died tragically together in a car accident.Jack Lemmon displays his acumen for comedy without even trying and miss Mills gives an understated performance.But kudos must go to the person who cast Clive Reville in the part of Carlucci the indispensible hotel manager.When he blurts out 'idiota' to an incompetent underling in absolute frustration its an absolute delight.It was a while before I realized he wasnt neapolitan.What a pity his talents have not been more recognized.I would also commend the melodic theme music arranged by Mr Rustichelli.The ending was not a complete surprise but fitting all the same. Please rent this one out all you romance lovers,you will not be disappointed, ...as for my cold,lo and behold the next morning it was gone!,funny that...

Rating:
Summary: A must for Jack Lemmon fans!
Review: An entertaining romp. Jack Lemmon is as enjoyable as ever. Beautiful Italian (presumably!) scenery and a sweet love story.

Rating:
Summary: Come In -- And Enjoy an Enchanting Romantic Comedy Gem!
Review: Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon didn't go straight for the belly laughs in this departure from their usual all-out-crazy comedies. Fans of the masters will be pleasantly surprised by this delightful romantic comedy, which captivates the viewer from the very start. Mezmerizing backdrop music plays as though secretly staged by Cupid standing by to assure that lovebirds will find one another.

Lemmon plays the son of a mega-wealthy American business man who had to drop everything to fly to Italy in order to claim the father's remains after a car accident. En route to his late father's "final stop", Lemmon runs in to a persistant young woman, who turns out to be the daughter of the woman with whom the father had had a lengthy affair, and who was found lovingly slung around his neck as they both died in said accident.

The situation seems rather awkward at first, but eventually Lemmon and the young woman begin following into the exact same steps their departed parents had done years earlier. The picture is completed by a brilliant supporting cast of hotel personnel and colorful locals. The performance of the multi-talented and ever-present-minded hotel manager was Oscar worthy.

Listening to the testimony of all people asked, Lemmon learns that his late father and his "friend" were viewed as Royalty, nothing less than figures from a fairy tale. The concluding scenes are the final touches to a most enchanting romantic comedy, one that has few rivals in its category. Billy Wilder has done it again. What he missed in big laughs, he made up in many magic moments and gentle pressures to your tear glands. One of the very best out there!*****

Rating:
Summary: Billy Wilder's brilliant switch from laughs to enchantment!
Review: Fans of the legendary director (Wilder) or star (Lemmon) will be surprised by an unexpected departure from their usual big-laughs comedy to an enchanting love story. Fans of the masters will be pleasantly surprised by this delightful romantic comedy, which captivates the viewer from the very start. Mezmerizing backdrop music plays as though secretly staged by Cupid standing by to assure that lovebirds will find one another.

Lemmon plays the son of a mega-wealthy American business man who had to drop everything to fly to Italy in order to claim the father's remains after a car accident. En route to his late father's "final stop", Lemmon runs in to a persistant young woman, who turns out to be the daughter of the woman with whom the father had had a lengthy affair, and who was found lovingly slung around his neck as they both died in said accident.

The situation seems rather awkward at first, but eventually Lemmon and the young woman begin following into the exact same steps their departed parents had done years earlier. The picture is completed by a brilliant supporting cast of hotel personnel and colorful locals. The performance of the multi-talented and ever-present-minded hotel manager was Oscar worthy.

Listening to the testimony of all people asked, Lemmon learns that his late father and his "friend" were viewed as Royalty, nothing less than figures from a fairy tale. The concluding scenes are the final touches to a most enchanting romantic comedy, one that has few rivals in its category. Billy Wilder has done it again. What he missed in big laughs, he made up in many magic moments and gentle pressures to your tear glands. One of the very best out there!*****

Rating:
Summary: at last
Review: For me - an Austrian - at last this movie is available on dvd. Me and my wife have been loving this picture for years. It's so innocent an so many hidden comedy, that meanwhile I could see Avanti every week and enjoy it over and over again. This Wendell Armbruster character ist simply genius. And what's even more genius ist the part of Carlo Carlucci , the Hotel-Director. Everyone who loves a romantic movie mixed with humor and good acting - buy this one.
Robert Farnleitner, Vienna, Austria

Rating:
Summary: My new favorite old movie!
Review: I admit it, I bought this movie because of Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills (2 of my favorites), but I completely fell in love with it as I watched it. It's a sweet story without being syruppy. Lemmon and Mills give outstanding performances and Wilder provides us with great directing and scenery. The only possible reason this isn't a classic is the nude scenes, racey for the time (1972) but not by today's standards (no full frontal).

Rating:
Summary: To Willie and Kate with Love
Review: I am biased in my review of this film, I first saw it in the 70's and I fell instantly in love with Italy, thank you Billy Wilder.
To paraphrase Pamela Piggot;

'Avanti is not a film, it is an emotion '

Everytime I watch this film I am transported into the ongoing and timeless world of Wendle Ambruster Jnr. Pamela Piggot, Carlo Carluci and the rest of the characters in this perfect film.
I like to think that Wendle and Pamela are still meeting 15 July to 15 August every year.
The film is yet another of Billy Wilders masterpieces of cinema, I only hope younger film fans will come to appreciate his portfolio of classic films, all of them good, but this one is my personal favorite.

Rating:
Summary: Avanti moves 'forward' as one of Wilder's best
Review: I consider 'Avanti' to be one of Billy Wilder's best films. Watch this movie and see how Wilder cleverly portrays his viewpoint of the differences in the cultures and societies of modern America and traditional Italy. His aim - I think - is to suggest to the viewer that American society is void of humanity due to its preoccupation with economic achievement and materialism and a lack of traditional culture that gives life meaning and fulfillment. In this film Wilder demonstrates repeatedly how people's characters can be influenced and changed simply by getting a taste of a foreign culture.

While this may sound offensive or stereotypical to some, this notion is so easy to accept without any difficulty or unease because of the delightful story, the outstanding direction and very convincing performances. In Jack Lemmon's case, his character is transformed for the better by his immersion in the Italian culture we see in the film. When watching this movie look at how some of the local characters that experience American culture, have become more cynical and opportunistic has a result of their experiences.

This may all sound very dark and negative, but that's a Billy Wilder film. If you know Wilder from his other movies then you should not be surprised by my description of this films theme. But this is not a dark film, the setting is beautiful and the mood is warm and sincere. Many of the scenes, situations and dialogue is very funny and touching. Only Billy Wilder could bring forward story about a character that by the end of the film is planning to regularly break one of God's commandments but has become a better person for it.