Permette? Rocco Papaleo (1971)

Though it was lensed in Italy, Ettore Scola’s Permette? Rocco Papaleo (1971) is set on the streets of Chicago. A scathingly critical view of the U.S., the film tells of an Italian-born heavyweight fighter who grows increasingly disgruntled with his situation after a long, cold night in the Windy City. Fraternizing with drunks and derelicts, the boxer (played by the great Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni) learns that plenty of honest men get ground down by the merciless machinery of the city. The inimitable Lauren Hutton offers a ray of light in an otherwise bleak and uncompromising picture, serving up some alluring strutting in the buff.