| His Days Are Numbered | |
|---|---|
 French release poster | |
| Directed by | Elio Petri |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Produced by | Anna Maria Campanile |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Ennio Guarnieri |
| Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
| Music by | Ivan Vandor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Titanus |
Release date |
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Running time | |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
His Days Are Numbered (Italian : I giorni contati), also titled Numbered Days, is a 1962 Italian drama film directed by Elio Petri. [1] [4] [5]
One day, Cesare, a 53-year-old plumber and widower, witnesses a passenger's sudden death from a heart attack on the tram. He realises his own mortality and decides to stop working, instead trying to make as much of his remaining time as possible. In a loosely connected series of scenes, he visits places he hasn't been to before like an airport or an art exhibition, goes to see his former girlfriend Giulia and other workers at their job, or watches residents of a housing area protesting intolerable sanitary conditions.
His Days Are Numbered had been conceived by Petri before his debut film The Assassin (1961), [1] [6] but considered not commercial enough by the producers. [1] The success of The Assassin both with the audience and critics eventually enabled the financing of His Days Are Numbered. [1]
His Days Are Numbered premiered on 25 March 1962 at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. [1]
While initially not a success, [7] film historians and institutions have acknowledged the importance of His Days Are Numbered in later years, seeing influences of neorealism and the French nouvelle vague, [6] Roberto Rossellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and early Jean-Luc Godard in particular, [8] and drawing comparisons to Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D. , Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries and Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru . [1]
His Days Are Numbered was shown in a restored version, carried out by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation, at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in 2012. [9]
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