Mi Manda Picone (Where's Picone?)

We meet Pasquale Picone very briefly before he sets fire to himself in a courtroom, is whisked away in an ambulance, and then suddenly disappears. His wife (played by Nina Sastri) is understandably upset, and enlists the aid of small time hustler named Salvatore (Giancarlo Giannini). As Salvatore picks up Picone's trail, he is pulled deeper and deeper into a web of payoffs--making him rather well off--in the Neapolitan underworld, but comes no closer to the identity or whereabouts of Picone. As the wonderfully pathetic Salvatore, Giannini delivers a superbly controlled comic performance. It's once again unfortunate that a film this good is marred by poor subtitling. Occasionally unreadable, sometimes misspelled, often faded--these problems mar an otherwise excellent film. (See BELLISSIMO for availability)