Rich and Poor

Rich and Poor (Un povero ricco, 1983) is an Italian comedy-romance you can watch online on iFILM. Eugenio, a forty-something industrialist, is so paralyzed by his fear of the apocalypse and his own fortune that his psychiatrist hands him an odd prescription: go live as a poor man for a while.

Eugenio takes it literally. He walks out on his home, begs for change, sleeps in empty swimming pools and railway waiting rooms, and digs leftovers out of bins behind restaurants. Telling detail — his old family and friends barely notice he's gone. Then, on a small river boat, he meets Marta, who owns about as little as he now does. Renato Pozzetto plays Eugenio with deadpan charm; Ornella Muti is Marta.

Director Pasquale Festa Campanile wraps a sad idea about the price of wealth inside a gentle, almost tender comedy. It's one for fans of 1980s Italian cinema who want warmth over melodrama, plus Muti on screen. Stream Rich and Poor (1983) online on iFILM.