Excellent movie about a dumb father...After the lost of his beloved mother a child has to bear that his father didn't die, too: "Everybody can't be an orphan." (Jules Renard) Better have wise enemies than stupid friends.Among Comencini's movies how much more enjoyable is Bette Davis' sadism in " The Scientific Cardplayer" than Anthony Quayle's helplessness here.Quayle's renowned ability to (dis)play an everlasting blubbering face was most important to directors, like: J. Lee Thompson for "The Guns of Navarone" Cyril Frankel for "No Time for Tears"

In 1966 Ferruccio Lamborghini marveled the world with the beautiful Lamborghini Miura, a dream under wheels, probably Lamborghini's true masterpiece. In the same year, Italy also marveled the world with this movie named 'Incompreso' (which means 'Misunderstood' in Italian).There are thousands and thousands of movies out there. All over the world. But once in a while there comes a movie that is special. This is one of them. Pure and poetic, it's worthy of any movie collection of true lovers of cinema. It's an excellent foreign movie, worthy of many Academy Oscars.The story takes place in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. Gorgeous settings are one of this movie's strengths, with aesthetic refinement, visuals in a classical style, beautiful photography and a typically Italian scenario which only accents the movie's charm.Being an Italian movie, as you would (and should) expect, people talk very loud. Italians are known for being noisy. But let's face it, the actors do very well in their roles: Anthony Quayle as Sir John Edward Duncombe (the father), Stefano Colagrande as Andrea (the older son) and Simone Giannozzi as Milo (the younger son).The movie is brilliantly directed by Luigi Comencini and it has beautiful music, very appropriate for the movie's dramatic nature, such as "Piano concerto #23 in A" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and "Rigoletto" by Giuseppe Verdi.The story is about a man of high position (Sir John Edward Duncombe) who recently lost his wife and now's gotta raise his 2 children by himself. Although a good parent, he tends to be harsh and unfair towards Andrea, often blaming him for anything that goes wrong (especially when it comes to look after his brother). He often doesn't believe Andrea, which takes Andrea to despair. In fact, the movie's title can't be anything else than about Andrea, the misunderstood son.The ending is emotional. Andrea is victim of a tragedy and that's when the father finally understands that even his older son needs to be loved, but unfortunately he realizes that too late.This movie was remade in 1984 under the title 'Misunderstood'. It was directed by Jerry Schatzberg and stars Gene Hackman, Henry Thomas and Huckleberry Fox. It's a nice remake. Of course, has its differences comparing to the original, but it's very loyal to the Italian movie. I like both movies very much but the Italian version is unquestionably superior.This should definitely be on Top 250.

In terms of status, Italian director Luigi Comencini reminds me of his American contemporary Sydney Lumet : as a director, he would embark in equal proportion into projects that were his very personal and others which were more like a studio contract thing. Yet (and that too is true of both directors), all along his fifty-year career, he has shown a remarkable ability to make personal, ambitious projects highly entertaining for millions of spectators, while on the other hand imprinting his unmistakable touch on projects that were meant by producers to be for the standard production. In other terms - and that again is true of both Lumet and Comencini - he's been, for more than fifty years, walking the tightrope between art and entertainment with outstanding virtuosity.Incompreso, now... Well, Incompreso is not only an excellent movie. It is not only one of the many, many proofs that popular entertainment made in Cinecittà during the Golden Age (1950-1980) is exactly as outstanding, and perhaps even more, than all the "great-author" films that critics (including American critics, when it comes to Europe) automatically favor, while ignoring completely - back then, at least - the marvels of popular movie entertainment. Incompreso is not only one of the best movies ever made about childhood. It is not only one of Luigi Comencini's greatest achievements outside of "commedia all'italiana", the tragicomic new genre of which he was one of the three Grand Masters (the two others being Risi and Monicelli).Incompreso is more than all this because all this - all that I have said so far - is about classification, status, polemics with those darned intellectuals, etc, the will to save a dream-come-true cinematography that was tragically underestimated not only abroad but in Italy as well - the country that for decades showed the greatest gap of all between the tastes of the critics and those of the public. All these are my personal axes to grind. But now, you must forget about this, and concentrate on watching Incompreso.When you will watch Incompreso, and I know you will, something will happen to your heart : at some point, you will feel it cracking and you won't be able to help it. And then it will crack some more. Near the unforgettable conclusion, it will fall on the ground in thousands of little pieces. But unlike so many other melodramas, this one refrains from using one single cheap trick. I mean it. It never tricks the spectator into crying. The crying comes only too naturally, with no strings attached or pulled.Luigi Comencini's Incompreso is the most intense, the most powerful, the most poignant melodrama ever put to screen. And ever means ever. Straight from the heart, straight to the heart, without one single cheap trick. Why use artificial tricks that treat spectators like puppets, while simple reality is enough to reach to their heart? Childhood is the best of times, childhood is the worse of times : both are equally true at the same time and there is nothing we can do to change this.As a movie-goer, I feel deeply indebted to Mr. Comencini. But the children in me loves him even more. Thanks to the many french-speaking TV channels of my country (Canada), I grew up with the best movie ever made FOR kids, in six perfect episodes of 52 minutes each : Luigi Comencini's Le Avventure di Pinocchio, which made me laugh so much. Then I saw the best movie ever made ABOUT kids : Luigi Comencini's Incompreso - and I cried a river.Luigi Comencini is 90 years old.

It is a bit slow moving at first, but well worth the wait! The acting is GREAT! The story is realistic (which accounts for it being a bit slow). Stefano Colagrande (Andrew) does such a good job, it makes me wonder why his acting career was so short. The movie is about how Andrew's father misunderstands him, because Andrew seems to have no emotion when sad events take place, the main one being his mothers death. Andrew also misunderstands his fathers feelings toward him, as dad only seems to care about Miles (Andrew's little brother). The ending is very quick but very precious! A wake up call for parents of a cold nature!