I can’t convey how beautiful this film is. After Wilder’s customary, intriguing delay (in this case 6 minutes), we are met with the premise: highly successful industrialist Wendell Armbruster, Jr. (an exceptional Jack Lemmon playing against type) travels to Ischia, Italy to collect his father’s body in time for the funeral. Bureaucratic red tape is one thing to cause delays, but Wendell is in for much more of a surprise. Framed against the unseen past, and unseen relationships, this is a charged yet understated film, one which screams an array of conflicting emotions with just a glance, the flick of a spoon, a static posture at the end of a hallway. It’s also very funny, comedy balanced against the melancholia, bewilderment and curiosity. The clunkily inserted episode with the valet is regrettable, but otherwise Avanti! is pretty phenomenal. Seek it out.