Over the years, he has built up a public persona that also acts as a guardian of his own films. A Morettian ‘moral police’ whereby, ultimately, it is no longer the critics who judge the director, but he who judges the critics.

The new film in competition at Venice brings to mind the 1977 clash with Monicelli: the young man who wanted to change cinema has become the revered master, regardless of his films – a director of ‘cinéma de papa’. What doesn’t work in “Succederà questa notte”