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Down and Dirty (film)

1976 film by Ettore Scola

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 27, 2025
Entity authorityQ535295 ↗
Source-derived summary

Down and Dirty, also known as Ugly, Dirty and Bad (Brutti, sporchi e cattivi) is an Italian film directed by Ettore Scola and released in 1976.

Ettore Scola won the Prix de la Mise en scène at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

The film tells the story of a large Apulian family living in an extremely poor shantytown of the periphery of Rome. The protagonist is one-eyed patriarch Giacinto (Manfredi). Four generations of his sons and relatives are cramped together in his shack, managing to get by mainly on thieving and whoring, among other things more or less respectable.

For the loss of his eye, an insurance company has paid Giacinto a large sum. Giacinto refuses to share his money with anyone, and spends little of it on himself, preferring to hide it from his family, which he routinely abuses verbally and physically. Various members of the family unsuccessfully try to steal his money. When Giacinto falls in love with an obese prostitute, brings her home and starts spending his money on her, Giacinto's enraged wife conspires with the rest of the family to poison him. However, Giacinto survives.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Down and Dirty (film)” as 1976 film by Ettore Scola. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1976-05-26, 1976-09-23, 1976-12-15, 1977-10-06—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Down, Dirty and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1976 film by Ettore Scola. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q535295. VIAF identifies the subject as 293339381. Authority coordinates are 41.905, 12.441. 17 of 17 selected statements include explicit references; 15 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Down and Dirty (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Down and Dirty (film) primary sources, Down and Dirty (film) archive and Down research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Down and Dirty (film)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Down and Dirty (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.