MOVIE · 1955

A Hero of Our Times

Comedy85 min

Alberto Sordi is Alberto Menichetti, an office worker living with his aunt and the old housekeeper Clotilde while he waits for the day he can finally declare himself to Marcella, the younger woman he loves. At work, his widowed boss, Mrs. De Ritis, has other ideas. Alberto’s problem is less bad luck than temperament: he’s frightened of nearly everything and quick to put himself first, and those habits turn ordinary situations into comic trouble. Franca Valeri appears alongside Sordi in Mario Monicelli’s 1955 Italian take on a man who imagines himself a romantic lead but keeps exposing his own vanity and cowardice.