Sunday Afternoons at the Paradise

Sunday, February 22 @ 1:30 p.m. Purchase your tickets here!

Il Sorpasso (1962)

Director: Dino Risi.  Run Time: 105 min.  Starring: Catherine Spaak, Claudio Gora, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Luciana Angiolillo, Vittorio Gassman

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. When their journey starts to blend into their daily lives though, the pair’s newfound friendship is tested.

A defining masterpiece of Italian commedia all’italiana, Dino Risi’s Il Sorpasso follows the unlikely pairing of shy law student Roberto and charismatic drifter Bruno as they tear through the sun-drenched roads of Ferragosto in Bruno’s roaring Lancia Aurelia. What begins as a spontaneous joyride becomes a sharp, unsettling look at a country racing toward modernity, at once funny, free-spirited, and deeply poignant. Dino Risi blends social satire with emotional depth, powered by memorable performances from Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

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Orchestra Rehearsal (1979)

An orchestra assembles for a rehearsal in an ancient chapel under the inquisitive eyes of a TV documentary crew, but an uprising breaks out.

Part mockumentary and part political allegory, Federico Fellini’s Orchestra Rehearsal transforms a single rehearsal room into a chaotic microcosm of Italian society. A documentary crew observes an orchestra whose players bicker, complain, organize, rebel, and eventually confront forces beyond their control. The comedy gradually sharpens into something darker and more surreal, echoing the turbulence of 1970s Italy. With Nino Rota’s music driving the rhythm of the film, this compact work becomes a provocative meditation on authority, art, and the fragile balance required to create harmony.