Racing into Rome early one morning, smooth-talking, fast-walking Vittorio Gassman just needs to borrow someone’s phone - even sleepy, uptight law student Jean-Louis Trintignant’s will do. Bored and with nothing better on tap, the two hit the road in Gassman’s souped-up Lancia Aurelia, blazing past farmers, priests, and bicyclists, honking horns at beautiful tourists, and shambling through Italy’s beautiful beaches. But what’s at the end of the road?

Perhaps the first modern-day road movie, and a favorite of directors from Martin Scorsese to Alexander Payne, Il Sorpasso was a smash hit in Italy and abroad, yet has remained unavailable in
this country for decades. Janus Films is proud to present this masterpiece of the Commedia all’italiana in a new restoration sourced from the original camera negative.