The Easy Life

A film with such a transparent plot could easily have been a clunker, but instead, The Easy Life is a wildly enchanting film. Director Dino Risi starts with what seems to be an upper middle class La Dolce Vita. Bruno, a middle-aged playboy from Rome, drives his sports car fast but isn't really happy because, deep down, he's bored and leading a superficial existence.

How do we know? Simple. Bruno has a sidekick during two frantic days, a callow, sallow law student named Roberto, so shy he won't call for help when accidentally locked in a public bathroom. The Playboy asks the Law student, "Why not throw yourself into life," and the Law Student cleverly counters, "I worry where I'm going to fall." The Playboy mutters to us all, "You're right, I'm the fool." Clunk.

Amazingly enough, the cliche is convincing on the screen. One reason clearly is Vittorio Gassman, who plays Bruno with such vitality and abandon that the playboy's frenzy to "live every minute" seems only partially pathetic. Such a life can be rich and genuinely enjoyable. His experiences are no more superficial than most experiences in life.

Because of the force of his personality and because his extroverted life lends itself well to visual presentation, Bruno dominates the screen. But he never really changes and, though he at first overshadows the law student, Roberto's silent, internal development assumes prime significance. Enchanted by the older man, Roberto (Jean Louis Trintignant) gradually becomes emancipated from his Caspar Milquetoast past. Bruno catalyzes Roberto's transformation. For example, the law student loses a bit of his innocence only when Bruno reveals the old family caretaker, Gaylord, as a homosexual.

Director Risi reveals the shallow, lonely aspects of Bruno's life poignantly yet comically. Long separated from his wife, Bruno visits his old home for the first time in three years. He dismisses his beautiful young daughter (Catherine Spaak) with advice to go out with younger guys (she deftly defends her aging fiancee: "Marriages of love often don't succeed. I'll go to Harvard to study and work in his research department.") and winds up in his wife's bedroom. Momentarily awakened to the wasted opportunities of the past and the emptiness of the present, he reaches for his wife, but she shoves him out of bed. The audience laughs in spite of itself as Risifuses humor and pathos with an uncanny touch.

Only in the last scene does The Easy Life abandon its humor. Smarting from the recognition of his own innocence, still enchanted by the exuberant playboy, Roberto suddenly completes his metamorphosis from wonkdom. Heady with a taste of Bruno's freedom, he urges Bruno to drive on a winding mountain road at breakneck speed. And that's exactly what Bruno does. Roberto goes over the cliffe with the sports car. Bruno is tossed safely aside, just in the nick of time. As Bruno views Roberto's corpse, he is reminded of the value of friendship and human beings. And Roberto's death reminds us, since the playboy's life proved fatal to him, "above all, to thine own self be true." You know The Easy Life is a good film when this last scene seems subtle, powerful, and dramatic.

Though certainly adequate, the photography could have been more effective. The camera seldom leaves Bruno's car yet the sense of movement comes more from the roaring sound-track than the image of the car on the screen. Even so, the constantly zooming car does a neat job of tying the scenes together and of symbolizing Bruno's highly charged life.

Some reviewers never stop hailing the "unobtrusive" camera, but "unobtrusive" shouldn't be confused with banal. Although it is filmed with a good sense of static composition, The Easy Life fails to exploit fully the possibilities for visual movement which could have complemented the thematic content. One gets tired of seeing what it's like to pass a car when sitting in the driver's seat.

The camera work may not be perfect, but that's about the film's only flaw. The Easy Life is superbly constructed, thoroughly enjoyable film with something to say. Don't miss it.