Il Marchese del Grillo (The Marquis del Grillo) is a 1981 comedic movie directed by Mario Monicelli and possibly one of the most famous movies starring Alberto Sordi.
Rome, Year of our Lord 1809. The nobleman Onofrio Del Grillo is a brilliant Marquis who spends his days pranking both common people and noblemen alike, seeking for fun away from a disfunctional family in a Papist Rome worried about the growth in power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the threat of the French. The story follows Onofrio's life, explore his motives, his salacious pranks and his loyalty to Pope Pious VII (played by Paolo Stoppa), as well as his eventual relationship with the French invaders, his family and the city of Rome as a whole.
The movie is actually based on a series of folk tales regarding the real Onofrio del Grillo, a roman nobleman who lived in the eighteenth century and is proudly remembered as one of the best (if not the best) movies with Alberto Sordi, to the point that one of the lines of the movie ("Sor Marchese è l'ora" note ) was used as the epitaph on Sordi's tomb.
The movie earned Mario Monicelli a Silver Bear for Best Director at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.
This Movie contains examples of:
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Acting for Two: Alberto Sordi plays both Onofrio del Grillo and his doppelganger Gasperino. - Adaptational Nice Guy: According to folk tales, the real Onofrio was much more antisemitic than the movie's Onofrio, who exclusivly relies on antisemitism to play a prank.
- The Alcoholic: Gasperino is usually seen motherless drunk, wastes no time in ransacking the Marquis' wine cellar and when asked which horses pair to the carriage, he says to put a white one and a black one, like with wine note He even asks a whole bucket of wine as a last wish.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When Onofrio del Grillo reveals his status to the Bargello, he thinks he's lying and claims to be the general commander of the French army and Napoleon's close buddy.
- Artistic License – History: The real Onofrio del Grillo died before 1809.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: At the end of the Bar Brawl, when the Bargello sees that Onofrio is still holding up the foot of the cheat he caught, he asks whose foot is it, earning a "Can't you see?" from the poor guy.
- Badass Preacher: Don Bastiano, an excommunicated priest who still claims to be one and leads a gang of cutthroats and brigands in the Latial hills.
- Been There, Shaped History: Or rather, not been: Onofrio briefly leaves his place in the Vatican garrison to punish his lover who tried to frame him: while he's away, the Vatican is attacked by the French forces and the Pope is captured.
- Black Comedy Rape: In a variant, when Onofrio finds out that his lover Faustina was actually meeting her boyfriend behind his back (and got pregnant by him, trying to blame the Marquis), Faustina's mother tries to save the situation by claiming that the boy is actually her lover. Amused, Onofrio forces the young man and Faustina's mother to have sex together at sword point, though apparently they don't go beyond foreplay.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Onofrio's family: his mother is a cold and strict fundamentalist crone, his cousin has not too-subtle and unrequited hots for him, his sister has a terrible breath she often pesker people about, his uncle is air-headed and obsessed with having a long dead relative undergo a beatification process and his young nephew seem to spend all his free time masturbating and confessing.
- Book Ends: Near the beginning of the movie, Onofrio stumbles as he's carrying the Pope's chair, causing him to take notice and snark at him. The movie ends with a similar gag with different lines between the two of them.
- Brutal Honesty: When in council with his order of sworn knights (including Onofrio, but also among others an extremely old man, a grotesque midget and other unimpressive folks) the Pope refers to them as few and "inadequate" (and not baselessly so either), among various things, though he still asks them to swear to protect the Holy Seat, rather than his person.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Early on, Onofrio takes the young but poor Faustina as a lover, until she and her mother accuses him of getting her pregnant. When he finds out that the father was actually Faustina's boyfriend she was having encounters with, Onofrio shows up at their home while he's inside and takes Faustina's mother on her word when she claims that the boy is actually her lover, forcing them to make love together.
- Corpsing: In-Universe, Ricciotto is the only one in the Del Grillo's house who knows the truth about Gasperino but he tries to behave as if he was the Marquis Onofrio. Still, when he sees him grope Genuflessa he can't hold a smirk and has to conceal his mouth.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Swiss Guard under Onofrio is so relaxed and negligent that the French take the entire garrison prisoner simply by rushing in and pointing their guns, causing everyone to surrender.
- Curse Cut Short: After hearing that Pius VII wants to have Onofrio executed, the Cardinal is shocked and asks him if he's not one of his favorite sons.
"Yeah, favorite son of a b... look, don't make me talk..."
- Creepy Child: The "witch" living in Onofrio's semi-abandoned countryside house is nearly bald, skeletal and has a raspy voice. She can also grab a red hot coin without burning herself, causing Onofrio to believe that she may be an actual witch.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pope Pius VII as played by Paolo Stoppa is surprisingly snarky and gets some excellent lines, such as when he's informed that the French have invaded the Vatican and is told that the Marquis Del Grillo was in charge of the guards.
" (sighs)... at least nobody got hurt..."
- Defiant to the End:
- In a spiritual sense, rather than fight or try to flee, Pope Pius VII wait for the French general on his throne, and after hearing out the latter's demands, he stands up and gives the famous answer with a calm but firm voice:
"We can not, we must not, we don't want to."- Don Bastiano turns his execution in one last act of defiance with a rousing speech aimed at the mob, before willingfully putting his head in the guillotine to face death, even ordering the executioner to wait for his signal.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: When the French actors show a woman actress playing the role of Venus in a roman theater, the whole crowd, both men and women, start booing her and complaining, as they were still used at having Castrati note playing the women.
- Demonic Possession: Parodied, when Terenzio sees "Onofrio" (actually Gasperino, the coal seller) behaving so strangely and claiming to be a coal seller, he jumps to the conclusion that he has been possessed by the restless soul of a coal seller and tries to exorcise him with holy water and latin. Gasperino actually believes him and, after yelling at the coal seller to get out, he calms down.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Onofrio's mother will often deliver painful-sounding slaps to Genuflessa's face for things such as owning revealing (for the time) pants or having erotic dreams about Onofrio.
- When Onofrio refuses to pay Aronne Piperno for his work, he claims that he's still pissed at Jews like him for killing Jesus, though it's clearly Played for Laughs.
- Near the end, the Pope turns Onofrio's sentence from three years of exile to death penalty, though it was all a trick to scare him up.
- Dumbass Has a Point: While Gasperino may not be a genius, he's practical enough to actually look carefully in the Marquis' family business regarding the expanses for things he's familiar with such as lumber, coal and fuel, to find out that the family administrator was actually cheating them over lots of money and unlike Onofrio cares enough to fire him, because he finds him untrustworthy.
- Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: The Castrati in the theater: they have extremely high-pitched voices, feminine mannerism and make up and belittle the French actresses, claiming that women can't outdo them as white voices. One of them even disturbs Olympia performance by outdoing her singing with his own soprano voice until she gets fed up and punch him in the face.
- Evil Matriarch: Onofrio's mother is cold, overly strict, abusive towards Genuflessa and fossilized by her dogmatic views and prejudices, to the point that she doesn't even want to be in the same room with French people. She's also willing to let Gasperino die on the gallows.
- Exact Words: In the beginning, Onofrio tosses fruit to some noisy beggars and when he inquires about their presence Ricciotto explains that it's because it's known that he throws fruit from his balcony. He then proceeds to chase them away by tossing pine cones (pointing out that those are fruit as well).
- Fan Disservice: Faustina's old, overweight mother is among the ladies who appear topless in the film.
- Foreshadowing: While eating in a tavern in peasant's clothes, Onofrio is addressed as "Gasperino" by the innkeeper and is later attacked by a furious woman (who he genuinely doesn't recognize) accusing him of spending all his money with whores. Much later he and Olympia find the real Gasperino, who's identical to the Marquis.
- Freudian Excuse: During his night out with the French officer Blanchard, Onofrio claims how his character of bon-vivant and prankster was a result of his distant, single-minded parents and of Rome's nature.
- The Fundamentalist: Onofrio's mother is a cold-hearted old fundamentalist who considers the French as enemy of God for daring to behead their king.
- Funny Background Event: During the exorcism scene, while Terenzio is spraying Gasperino with holy water and reading latin formulae, the chaplain Don Sabino is just waving the crucifix around, saying things like "Shoo, shoo, away with you!" as if dealing with a pest.
- The Ghost: Napoleon Bonaparte is frequently mentioned, but never makes an appearence.
- Groin Attack: The witch threatens to dry up the Marquis' balls with a hex if he doesn't give her money. After seeing her grab a scorching hot coin unhurt, both Onofrio and Blanchard have a change of heart and walk away cautiously holding their crotch.
- Hidden Depths: The massive prank on Aronne and the consequent "funeral for Justice" shows that there's much more than the eye meets in Onofrio.
- Honor Before Reason: When Bastiano has his men return Blachard's money purse to him untouched, he haughtly tells them to keep his money, an act of defiance which ticks off the bandit leader. Luckily, Onofrio manages to defuse the situation before it gets rough.
- Humiliation Conga: Onofrio refuses to pay the jewish carpenter Aronne, then uses as much money as possible (as his accountant points out, much more than Aronne's price) to hire and bribe lawyers and judges so that they let him get away and force Aronne to be paraded across the city on the back of a donkey for breaking the curfew. Luckily, we learn that Onofrio made amend not only by paying Aronne anyway, but also by giving him extra money and a land property.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Ricciotto is the Marquis loyal sideckick and perhaps only friend. He follows his orders flawlessly and is very competent in what he does, losing his temper only once when a drunk Gasperino insults him.
- I Ate WHAT?!: While in Rome with Olympia, he offers her a local dish the "Rigatoni con la Pajata" note , without telling her what it is. When they have to leave in a hurry and she still wants to end the dish, he bluntly tells her that's calf shit, making her stop at once.
- It Will Never Catch On: The people of Rome are used with having castrati playing women in plays, so they find the notion of actual women on stage ridicolous.
- Identical Stranger: Gasperino, a coal maker, is a perfect deadringer for Onofrio, who decides to use him to play an elaborated prank by dressing him up as himself.
- Insistent Terminology: Don Bastiano was excomunicated after murdering the cousin of a nobleman who got his sister pregnant and ruined the chances of marrying off his other sister, but he still considers himself a priest, title he intends to keep up to his death.
- Insult Backfire: At one point, Gasperino's wife call Olympia "mignotta". When Onofrio explains to Olympia that's the roman for whore, she isn't offended and admits she has a point.
- Jabba Table Manners: Gasperino is clearly out of place at the Marquis dinner table, eating messily, hogging food he likes and refuse a fancy soup because "smells like feet". Terenzio claims it's an after effect of having been possessed by the dead coal seller.
(After Gasperino gives a belch so loud he startles everyone) "This was obviously the coal seller."
- Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: Onofrio del Grillo is willing to commit mean pranks for personal amusement or act callously towards commoners, but he can be just as generous and kind.
- The Jinx: When Terenzio narrates the miracle of "Quartina" as she cursed a cat who bit her and he later choked on some fish, Onofrio asks if said Quartina wasn't merely this.
- Knife Fight: Ricciotto and a card player get into one after Onofrio accuses the latter of cheating, though fortunately the guards arrive before blood is spilt.
- Large Ham: Both the Marquis Del Grillo and Gasperino, being played by the late Alberto Soldi, steal the scene without overdoing.
- Ms. Fanservice: Fuasitna, Genuflessa and Olympia are all very pretty and often appear in the nude. Olympia has even a good minute of full frontal nudity.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Terenzio's attempt to pass mundane facts of the Quartina's life as miracles.
- Nice Guy: Uncle Terenzio, while a bit air-headed and fixated with his beatification process, is overall a nice, kind old man.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Early on, Onofrio introduces his French friend to Don Bastiano, the boss of the local brigands, in order to have his protection. It's implied that the same French, Blanchard, used this information to have Bastiano captured and executed.
- Probably wouldn't have make the difference, but Onofrio leaves the Vatican garrison without a leader exactly on the night where the French invade, unhindered.
- Off with His Head!: Don Bastiano is executed via guillotine, his head exposed to the crowd.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Aronne Piperno has one when the judge points out that he violated the Ghetto's curfew for his job.
- Onofrio has a massive one when he hears that the French have captured the Pope... on his watch!
- Pet the Dog:
- After humiliating Aronne in multiple ways, Onofrio gives him twice the amount of money and even a terrain.
- After chewing out Faustina and her boyfriend for their plot, which would have made "me a moron and your son a bastard", the Marquis decides to forgive them and swears to show up as the child's godfather, which implies monetary help to the young couple.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Onofrio gives a minor one to Faustina and her fiancé for trying to blame him for her pregnancy.
- When the roman artists criticize Onofrio for siding with the French and their innovations to Rome, he retorts that in the end they're just blaming the French for their lack of inspiration and originality.
- Onofrio and his mother have a brief mutual one when he reveals that he tricked them into believing that Gasperino was him and decides to leave them to go to Paris.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Pope Pius VII is portrayed as a sarcastic, tired but overall kind and good ruler: near the end, as his secretary reads a list of punishments for the traitorous nobles, he lessen almost all of them, only asking for death penalty for Onofrio, though it was a trick.
- Refuge in Audacity: When Onofrio realizes that the French have taken the Vatican while he was away, he decides to punch Faustina's boyfriend in the face to smear his own face in his blood, to pretend that he was wounded in combat heroically, as he's brought away by Ricciotto and the wounded guy.
"Mother! I did my duty! I spilt blood for the Holy Father!"
- Romanticism vs. Enlightenment: Discussed when the roman artists claim that the modernization brought by the French will only destroy Rome and ruin its charm. Decostructed by Onofrio, who dismisses the arguments of the artists.
"You speak a lot about the French's faults, but take away a couple of stone ruins, an half-naked shepherd with a pipe or two oxen at twilight and you're left with nothing. You blame the French of taking away your inspiration, but in the end you have nothing to say, that's the truth."
- Running Gag: Pompeo needing to confess, Onofrio's mother mistreating Genuflessa, Terenzio's obsession with the beatification process.
- Sad Clown: For all his jokes and joie de vivre, Onofrio del Grillo also harbors some deep, sad thoughts.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Invoked, Onofrio escapes being arrested because he's a Marquis, spouting the most iconic line of the movie.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Invoked again by Onofrio, who spends a huge amount of money instead of paying the carpenter Aronne, just to see "if the rights of a poor carpenter are worth more than the whims of a cruel and rich man"
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon learning from some soldiers that Napoleon was defeated, Onofrio decides to quit the journey to Paris and returns to Rome.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl:
- While she normally acts in a prudish way, Genuflessa has traces of this: when she hears Onofrio (Gasperino) coming down the stair near her rooms she immediatly angles the full-height mirror so that she can be seen undressing from the half-open door and sings loudly to herself.
- Olympia is an actress, but has no trouble performing in an alluring, leg-baring attire or appearing in the nude.
- Shaming the Mob: Don Bastiano delivers an awesome, defiant speech to the people of Rome, which go from mocking him to actually listening to his words and even cross themselves. He also proceed to publicy forgive Napoleon, "who thinks he owns the earth", the Pope, "who thinks he owns heaven" and most of all the people, who certainly own fucking nothing.
- Signature Headgear: Don Bastiano's priestly hat. Even when he's about to be beheaded he insists on having the hat on his head to the very end.
- Signature Line: Onofrio's line to the arrested criminals as he leaves the scene scot free:
"I am sorry, but I am who I am, and you're fucking nobody."
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Don Bastiano is very foul-mouthed, which is used to hilarious effect when he alternates flawlessly vulgar profanities with pius language.
: "And whip out the sign of the cross, you sons of bitches!"
- Slut-Shaming: When Olympia appears on stage and the audienc realize she's an actual woman, a lady from the audience can be heard calling her disgusting for wearing such a skimpy outfit.
- Thanks for the Mammary: While witnessing the execution (not knowing who's going to be killed), Olympia says that the guillotine always makes her heart race and puts Onofrio's hand on her chest to make him feel her pulse. He then candidly claims that his heart is racing too, but because of "hand feeling".
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Invoked in one of the most infamous pranks, where Onofrio has an entire shop (windows and door) walled in during the night, so that when the shopowner comes he can only see a plain wall with no traces of his shop, except for a public toilet.
- This Cannot Be!: Pius VII has a minor one when all the bells of Rome are rung, as if to announce the Pope's death.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The Bargello has this moment when his superior recognizes the man he just took prisoner as the real Marquis del Grillo and proceeds to chew him out for his blunder.
- Toilet Humor: The shop prank includes putting a wooden public toilet where the shop was, with the entire discussion with the confused shop owner happening as Onofrio's taking a piss.
- Troll: Onofrio del Grillo, best seen during the shop prank, where he treats the flabbergasted shop owner as a drunk vagrant.
- War Is Glorious: Captain Blanchard's opinion on war, he even compares it to sex and is so worked up when talking about it that he ends up singing La Marseillese.
- What You Are in the Dark: At the end of the movie, when Onofrio sees that Gasperino was about to be beheaded for his crime, he tells Ricciotto that this has gone too far and steps up to save him, but luckily the Pope calls off the execution at the last moment.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never know what happens to Olympia and her troupe.
- Wilting Odor: Camilla, Onofrio's sister, has a severe case of alithosis which almost makes Ricciotto faint. Furthermore she has the annoying habit of asking the opinions of others and gives them a sample of her terrible breath. Ricciotto downright states that she's got a dead rat down her mouth.
