Piero Piccioni Fumo di Londras

Archive release featuring music from the original 1966 Italian comedy composed, arranged and conducted by Piero Piccioni. In '66, London was the center of the world, and it is into this dizzying technicolor dream house that Mr. Dante Fontana lands. An expert in Italian Antiquities, steeped in the mythology of Lords and Ladies, the Queen, the changing guards and City Gents: all those oh so English traditions! However Mr. Dante Fontana soon discovers he is too late to realize his fantasy of becoming an English Gentleman. After buying a Bowler and Smoke of London suit, he encounters a city already invaded by the new Beat Generation, and thus the Italian dreamer embarks on a journey into dimensions where strangeness and extremes travel at maximum velocity. So rises Fumo Di Londra, the historic first film directed by Alberto Sordi in 1966, in which each frame emanates magic. Much of the film's considerable allure derives from the enchanting soundtrack of Piero Piccioni. Like Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up and Desmond Davis' Smashing Time, Fumo di Londra - with it's Edwardiana and Royal Parks and River Thames settings - will forever celebrate the mythology of Swinging London.