Nino Manfredi directed only three works, the episode in L’amore difficile, Per grazia ricevuta, and an unsuccessful Nudo di donna which he took over from Lattuada. He was an intrusive character, who talked about his childhood in Ciociaria in Per grazia ricevuta, and adapted this story by Italo Calvino, his first attempt, before he felt on a par with Sordi, Gassman, Mastroianni, Tognazzi etc. There is the black and white, a basic setting, not many technical and narrative resources, rhythm and, on this occasion, modesty. The soldier’s character is understood and represented precisely, almost autobiographically. It was the period of the economic boom and of Italian comedy, but a humble and marginal Italy still existed, sexually traditional, peasant and not bourgeois, an Italy which Manfredi knew better than Calvino and he knew how to portray it with clear participation.

                                                                                                                                                         Goffredo Fofi