Avanti! (1972) - film review

Avanti! is an American-Italian romantic film drama first released in 1972, directed by Billy Wilder.  The film stars Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill and Edward Andrews.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.

Write a synopsis for this film...

Write a review for this film...

I am a huge Billy Wilder fan, and consider The Apartment one of the greatest American movies ever made. The screenplay of Aventi was based on a play which probably was very funny on the stage and well written, but the movie exploits the cinematic medium to create the disaster it is. The HUGE problem was the miscasting of Juliet Mills, who, to put it gently, is repulsive, and I found myself avoiding looking at her until I finally gave up and erased the movie. Wilder’s mistake was spoiling the play with soft porn,the sort that is desperate to get attention, much like The Reader did. Terribly disappointing. Shakespeare wrote some duds also I know, but David Lean did not: Every single film he made was a masterpiece; Not so with Wilder.
Stanley Hersh (New York City, USA) 

What do you think of this film?