The Girl with a Pistol

Sicilian-style honour killing is the somewhat dubious subject of this comedy picaresque by Mario Monicelli, which curiously earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. Monica Vitti plays the village girl who absconds to Britain and vows revenge against her seducer (Carlo Giuffrè) when he refuses to marry her. Very much a fish out of water in the cities of Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bath, Brighton and London, Vitti brings pugnacious poignancy to her role, and recalls Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria as she realises that true happiness comes from within. Returning to Blighty after shooting Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup, cinematographer Carlo Di Palma provides a valuable record of Swinging Britain, while it's amusing to watch Anthony Booth, Corin Redgrave and Stanley Baker as the men Vitti encounters on her travels. Although dated and scattershot in its approach, The Girl with a Pistol nevertheless proves fascinating.