Watch The Marquis of Grillo For Free

I wanted to but couldn't!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Mario Monicelli is definitely one of the greatest directors of Italian cinema and Alberto Sordi is an absolute Genius. Here they team up again...And what a great fun it was to discover this less known little gem of the early eighties! Sordi is an atypical and fanciful aristocrat who plays the fool to forget the emptiness and uselessness of his own life in the context of french Napoleonic troops invading Italy, bringing along a few revolutionary ideas...It's a light, refreshing and very enjoyable comedy, addressing some very serious and deep questions like the power of the Catholic Church and the Pope, the aristocrats' privileges, justice, corruption, forgiveness and much more. There is even a delicious part where a coal cutter is being mistaken as the marquis, Sordi having great fun playing both roles...Indeed you can watch it many times and you will be amazed how fun and deep this movie can be.

The logic in the editing is completely broken. There is inconsistency and it's hard to follow the story... actually there is no story other than episodes the director tried to make up together to create a film, but this is just a nice try. As example, the scene of the witch dancing around the fire ends with Sordi in company of the french guy at night: next scene, for no reason show Sordi playing cards. What's the editor was thinking? what's the point of this cut? none. just dumb. Alberto Sordi has lost all his aura. Sordi while was great in the b&w movies form the 50' and 60' now seems lost trying to auto-reference himself and the "roman-ity" but with weak results. Overall a terrible movie that should be erased from Sordi career.

Are we dealing with Alberto Sordi's top interpretation? Maybe not, but we are as close as hell...Anyway, superbly directed by Monicelli (once again, excellent job done in Cinecittà Studios recreating the early 19th century Rome), Sordi impersonates eccentric Marchese del Grillo, who actually lived, although not in the same period the movie depicts. Monicelli uses Del Grillo's myth and his plethora of jokes to expose the hypocrisy of Vatican and noble Romans, while ideas such as "freedom, equality and brotherhood" were slowly penetrating in the conservative Vatican State. Marchese del Grillo is surely a life-lover and an intellectual in his own way, and does not feel satisfied in narrow-minded 1815 Rome, despite (or maybe, because of) his wealth. He befriends frenchmen, enjoys spending time with common people and doesn't mind to corrupt a whole jury just to show that "justice is dead". While the first part of the movie may be just biographical (and extremely funny and full of unforgettable punchlines), the movie has its pivotal point when Marchese discovers he has an exact lookalike, who works as a coal seller (also played by Sordi, outstanding in his double role) in popular Rome. By trading places with the coal seller (often drunk, thus not really understanding what's going on), Marchese gets the chance to get rid of his family, the Pope Rome to join the cradle of European intellectual life, Paris. Sure, Alberto Sordi is by himself worth watching the movie, but nevertheless, Monicelli manages to show us an unusual side of History we often see or read. And by doing this, he also throws in the movie an handful of unforgettable characters both fictional (the coal seller, Don Bastiano, Ricciotto) and actual (Pope Pius VII, a noble family, such as the Del Grillos). Well, in the end, a must see, a movie with a double value: an outstanding comedy and a valid historical film.

Il "Marchese del Grillo" is an incredibly enjoying movie,Alberto Sordi is absolutely a "maestro" of acting.He portrays his character in a really smashing way.You can realize better and agree with what I'm saying,if you can understand the Roman dialect,as I do.Alberto is great not only because he depicts this really existed character in a very convincing way ,but he also adds fun to the movie through the creation of Gasperino,the drunken coal seller. I think that all those American actors of Italian origins should understand and recognize that he's really their own "maestro" too. In a few words Alberto represents for the world of the cinema what Dante Alighieri still represents for the world literature Apart from our big Alberto,I must also praise the performance of the rest of the cast and the wise direction of Mario Monicelli.According to me he's the only director in the world who has always succeeded in depicting in a very faithful and convincing manner different historical periods of my country, that's Italy.