Monster (1996)

"Absolutely delightful!  Jeffrey Lyons, ABC World News
"Insanely funny! Laughs galore!  Jami Bernard, NY Daily News
"Hysterical... A genius at work!  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Editor's Note The rubber-faced Roberto Benigni, Italy's most beloved slapstick comic, stars in THE MONSTER as Loris, a bumbling con man whose everyday activities consist of shoplifting from the local supermarket and preventing anyone from buying the apartment he is squatting in. Suspected of being a vicious rapist, he is seduced by a voluptuous female cop (Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's wife in real life) who hopes to overstimulate his sexual urges and catch him in the act of committing a crime. A comedy of misidentification like Benigni's box-office smash JOHNNY STECCHINO, THE MONSTER features Benigni doing his best imitation of the innocent everyman pioneered by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Whether it's dropping a cigarette down his pants or dealing with an out-of-control chain saw, Benigni is all arms, legs, and statically charged hair. Once censured by the pope, Benigni pushes the edge in risqué scenes with his wife, who spends much of the movie gamely thrusting her pelvis and chest in front of Loris. THE MONSTER is a great introduction to a comic whose jokes, it is said, contributed to the downfall of an Italian prime minister.

	Dominique Lavanant
	Laurent Spielvogel
	Michel Blanc
	Nicoletta Braschi
	Roberto Benigni
	Danilo Donati - Costume Designer
	Roberto Benigni - Director
	Elda Ferri - Executive Producer
	Evan Lurie - Musical Score
	Yves Attal - Producer
	Roberto Benigni - Screenplay
	Vincenzo Cerami - Screenplay

In THE MONSTER, Roberto Benigni is a hapless bush-league grifter who must clear his name when the local Joe Fridays pin the rap for a series of murders on him. Naturally, hilarity ensues.

"This man is a genius. He's the Mozart of vice."----Taccone (Michel Blanc) to female officers

"We must catch the monster with his hand in the cookie jar and you must play the cookie."----Chief of Police (Laurent Spielvogel) to Jessica (Nicoletta Braschi|)|"You're a flower for a hungry bee. The pistil beckons, then retracts, forbidding the honey. It will be a perverse war, a lustful duel, day and night. An obscene bombardment."----Taccone to Jessica

"Do you know what we call this 'nothing strange'? Preurgic cathartic empathy."----Taccone to Jessica

Los Angeles Times
"...Benigni is so gifted he makes every scenario he touches inevitably funny....Benigni creates hysteria whenever he appears..." 04/19/1996 p.F4

San Francisco Chronicle 0 of 10
The Monster combines a nasty modern sensibility with a classic instinct for visual comedy. The result is one of the funniest movies of the past few years. A measure of the success of this Italian comedy, directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, is that the first thing everyone wants to do on leaving the theater is tell friends about it. And the first thing each finds out is that the jokes can't be described, at least not in a way that keeps them funny. Woody Allen's one-liners can be retold. But Chaplin skating blindfolded has to be seen. The comedy of The Monster is in the silent tradition, but don't mistake it for some fey, bloodless homage to the great silent clowns. Benigni's comedy is as vulgar today as Chaplin's seemed 80 years ago... Like a master composer, Benigni works and reworks this mistaken-identity theme for a series of dazzling variations. At one point, a cigarette falls into Loris' trousers by accident. He stops to ogle a pretty woman -- and immediately goes into a fit of leaping and pounding on his crotch, as if suddenly overwhelmed by maniacal lust... Benigni (Down by Law) is thin and loosely put together, with nervous eyes and quick gestures. He's funniest at his most emphatic. There are scenes in which Loris takes lessons in the Chinese language -- a scream just for the exaggerated way Benigni pronounces the words and attempts the Chinese inflections. His voice is as flexible an instrument as his body, capable of an unexpectedly deep baritone when he pretends to an air of authority. Though it's a long comedy, The Monster never loses steam or even slows down... Nervous hysteria is Benigni's natural territory as a comic, and he spends most of The Monster in precisely that state. He becomes an endearing presence over the course of the film, a very human underdog, even as his invention and innovation mark him as a comedian of rare gifts. - Mick LaSalle

Albuquerque Alibi 0 of 10
This...work by Roberto Benigni is the highest-grossing film in Italian history. The story of a clumsy shmuck mistaken for a serial-killing rapist may seem odd grounds for comedy, but Benigni's perfect slapstick timing works well in the strangest of circumstances. While not exactly PC by American standards, the film is much tamer than its plot would suggest. Hapless Benigni spends the entire film ducking his money-grubbing landlord and being trailed by a pretty undercover police officer. Benigni actually has the guts to turn this whole affair into a romantic comedy, and he succeeds in a Benny Hill sort of way. Not as intellectual as some film critics would like to think, but still pretty damn funny.