The complete obscurity of Avanti is a cinematic injustice that needs to be rectified. Jack Lemmon and director Billy Wilder made their share of hits together (Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, for starters), but this wry, melancholy comedy was completely out of touch with its time (which recalls a Wilder one-liner from the 1970s: "Who the hell would want to be in touch with these times?"). It may have flopped badly in 1972, but it wears well in retrospect. Lemmon plays a jerk American businessman called to Italy to pick up the body of his father, who died while enjoying... a secret (and, it turns out, annual) liaison with a mistress. With the help of a delightful Englishwoman (Juliet Mills) who happens to be the daughter of the "other woman", Lemmon finds himself stepping in a few of dad's footsteps, and falling under the sway of the beguiling Italian atmosphere. It's a very leisurely movie, but that's part of the effect. Clive Revill delivers a gem of a performance as a heroic hotel manager, and Juliet Mills (sister of Hayley, daughter of Sir John) had her finest screen hour here. As a director, Wilder spent much of his early career camouflaging his romantic streak under a cynical front; here, despite many acerbic touches and the presence of death as the central plot device, the romance is in full flower under the rich Italian sun. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com [show more]
We will publish your review of Avanti [1972] on DVD within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Wendell (Lemmon) goes to Italy to pick up his father's body after an automobile accident. He soon finds that his self righteous elderly father had been having an affair with Pamila's (Mills) mother for the past 10 years and were known as the model romantic couple at the hotel.
Jack Lemmon stars in this Billy Wilder comedy as American executive Wendell Armbuster. On travelling to Italy to recover his father's body after a car accident, Wendell soon becomes tied up in endless red tape, and is shocked to discover that his father had a mistress, who also died in the car crash. The mistress' daughter, Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills), arrives in Italy to collect her mother's body, and she and Wendell embark on a series of misadventures both comic and romantic.
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
