RIP Ettore Scola (1931 – 2016)

Ettore Scola (1931 – 2016) was an Italian film director.

I remember A Special Day fondly. The story of an oppressed housewife and her gay neighbor who stay at home in Rome and enjoy a moment of tenderness on the day that Hitler visits Mussolini.

And then there was the film Brutti, sporchi e cattivi which literally means Ugly, Dirty and Bad but which was released as Down and Dirty (1976).

There is a scene in that film which I’ll never forget (above).

The background: A large and grotesque family live in an extremely poor bidonville of the periphery of Rome. The protagonist is one-eyed patriarch Giacinto (Manfredi). Four generations of his sons and relatives are cramped together in his shack, managing to get by mainly on thieving and whoring.

The scene: One night, a distant family member comes to the shack, sees the buttocks of the sleeping girlfriend of the patriarch, pulls down her underpants and starts to fuck her from behind. When she turns around and asks him quizzically “who are you?”, he answers reassuringly, “I am one from the house.” Whereafter he continues to fuck her (I believe).