The Monster

The Monster (Italian: Il mostro) is a 1994 Italian-French comedy film, starring Roberto Benigni as a man who is mistaken by police profilers for a serial killer due to a misunderstanding of the man's strange behavior. This film was, at the time it came out, the highest-grossing film in Italy, bested later by another Benigni film, Life is Beautiful. Plot Loris (Roberto Benigni) is a part-time mannequin handler for a department store. He hopes to learn Chinese in order to get an assistant manager position. He lives in a building where he hasn't paid the rent in months, and he also owes money to other people around town. At a party, Loris is told about a nymphomaniac who will sleep with anyone. Loris approaches the wrong woman, who runs away and tells the police. Because of his odd behavior, he becomes the chief suspect in a series of rape/murders. The chief of police, frustrated by the lack of solid evidence against Loris, resolves to provoke his passion and catch him "red-handed." An attractive police officer, Jessica (Nicoletta Braschi) goes undercover as his roommate, and is directed by the chief and the police doctor, Paride (Michel Blanc), to dress provocatively in order to entrap Loris. After a few days living in his apartment, Jessica begins to doubt Loris really is the killer. Paride, however, is convinced that Loris is on the brink of committing his next crime. Paride visits Jessica's apartment on the pretext of fitting Loris for a suit. He performs all sorts of medical tests and Loris remains clueless, thinking he really is being fitted for a suit. Later, Loris goes to interview at the Chinese company. His teacher gives him a little Chinese good luck charm, and Jessica sees this. Loris bombs the interview, unable to answer the very first question: to tell his name.