Hyper-Parodic Machineries from Narrative to Cinema: Dürrenmatt's A Dangerous Game between Ettore Scola and Alberto Sordi

Abstract

A Dangerous Game of Friedrich Dürrenmatt centres on the mockery of justice. The issue was brought to the big screen for the first time by Ettore Scola’s The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life (1972). There is a willingness to overcome the narrative and environmental mockery with parodic elements that are closely related to Sordi’s mask.
Indeed, despite the Roman actor’s efforts, a scrupulous direction and Sergio Amidei’s accurate screenplay, Sordi’s topical characteristics comes out during his performance. Sordi’s personal comedy clichés overlap the Swiss playwright’s sarcasm with some hyper-parodic aspects.
Scola’s movie sets up itself as the "focal point" of an artistic and semantic perspective that begins with Thrilling third episode directed by Carlo Lizzani in 1965 up until Comencini’s Traffic Jam, inspired by Cortazar and having, of course, Alberto Sordi in the leading role.
Dürrenmatt’s A Dangerous Game finds in Lizzani’s episode a precursor of some distortions of "judgment" and "condemns ", which will culminate in Comencini's film where a whole path of the highway will be shut off.