Institute History
Description
Best known in the United States for such popular films as The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1974), Swept Away (1975 and Seven Beauties (1976), Lina Wertmuller returns with the political slap-stick of A Joke of Destiny. When an engine failure traps the Italian Minister of the Interior inside his computer-controlled, terrorist-proof, high-tech, maximum-security limousine, all Rome breaks loose. The Minister’s political adversary, the Honorable Vincenzo De Andreiis (outside whose home the car is coincidentally stalled) can so little to monopolize the impending “political crisis” because in the meantime: (1) his wife discovers that her long-time lover, a political terrorist, has escaped from prison and is en route to join her, (2) his anarchist mother reveals herself as an avid pot-smoker and drug dealer, and (3) his 16-year-old daughter insists on lusting after a local policeman. A Joke of Destiny has enough plot to choke a horse, a frolicking misadventure in the best tradition of Italian political satire. This eccentric group of characters is lead by Italy’s most popular and honored actor, Ugo Toganzzi, in the role of De andreiis.