Rent Avanti! (1972)

Late Wilder - Avanti! review by MCG

Billy Wilder is my favourite director, and I have seen nearly all of his films and this is one of his last efforts. Avanti is charming and boasts fine performances from the ever-excellent Wilder regular Jack Lemmon and newcomer Juliet Mills. It is overlong as many critics have noted, and it is trying a bit too hard to be relevant to the liberated 70's with really rather gratuitious nudity and language. However it is a rather charming romantic comedy with a trademark Wilder "meet-cute" and lovely location photography in Italy. The dialogue is rather less snappy than peak-Wilder scripts and it does tend to drag a bit in places. I enjoyed it but would suggest it is a must only for Wilder completists like myself.

aDICTIVE - Avanti! review by CP Customer

My Dad watched this film 11 times in the 4 days I rented it.

Great fun - Avanti! review by ND

The nudity is so out of place it's uncomfortable and the film could have been shorter, I suppose. End of criticisms.

There are Jack Lemmon wannabees out there, none have his class. No-one could have played this better, he's a joy to watch in action.

The rest of the cast tries to live up to him and the majority succeed. The locals are all brilliant and the hotel director is a scene stealer, he's so good.

It's a dated film but the sitcom element could be remade today without difficulty.

We loved this film and recommend it to you.