The Easy Life

Il Sorpasso
Italian film poster
Directed by	Dino Risi
Produced by	Mario Cecchi Gori
Written by	Dino Risi Ettore Scola Ruggero Maccari
Starring	Vittorio Gassman: Bruno Cortona Jean-Louis Trintignant: Roberto Mariani Catherine Spaak: Lilli Cortona Claudio Gora: Bibi Luciana Angiolillo: Bruno's wife Linda Sini: Aunt Lidia Nando Angelini: Amedeo Luigi Zerbinati: commendatore
Music by	Riz Ortolani
Cinematography	Alfio Contini
Edited by	Maurizio Lucidi
Release date	1962 (Italy) 22 December 1963 (U.S.)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Il Sorpasso (English: The Easy Life) is a 1962 Italian cult movie comedy film co-written and directed by Dino Risi and starring Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Catherine Spaak. It is considered Risi's masterpiece and one of the more famous examples of Commedia all'italiana film genre.

The film starts in a hazy, sun-baked and seemingly empty Rome on an August morning. A young, timid law student, Roberto (Trintignant), gazing out his window, is asked for trivial favor, a phone call, by a 40-ish man named Bruno (Gassman), who is passing on the street below at the wheel of a convertible Lancia Aurelia.

The young man tells him to come up and make the call himself. After Bruno fails to contact his friends — he is running a full hour late for his meeting with them, something he apparently doesn't find a good motive for them to have "abandoned" him— he insists on repaying Roberto's courtesy with an aperitivo. Tired of studying for the day and falling prey to Bruno's enthusiasm, the young man accepts.

Thus begins a cruise along the Via Aurelia, the Roman road that also gives the name to Bruno's beloved car. Roberto is unwilling or unable to part from this casual acquaintance despite having almost nothing in common with him. Bruno is loud, brash, risk taking, a bit coarse and a braggart, to boot. He drives recklessly, speeding and constantly attempting "il Sorpasso" — the impatient and aggressive practice of serial tailgating and honking to overtake other cars on the road. But he is also charming and likable. And Roberto, being his complete opposite, feels drawn to Bruno's impulsive, devil-may-care attitude.

Over two days of highs and lows across the coasts of Lazio and Tuscany, the two men fall into various adventures while gradually managing to learn something of each other. When, for example, the duo spontaneously drops in on Roberto's relatives, en route, the young law student suddenly realizes that his childhood wasn't as golden as he'd always imagined. And later he finds out about Bruno's failed marriage and young daughter, revealing a life not nearly as carefree as Bruno pretends to lead.