The Pool Hustlers is a 1982 Italian comedy-drama

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 film directed by Maurizio Ponzi

Maurizio Ponzi

Maurizio Ponzi is an Italian film director, screenwriter and cinema critic.Born in Rome, he wrote cinema reviews in several Italian magazines during the early 1960s...

. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

section at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival

1983 Cannes Film Festival

- Jury :*William Styron *Henri Alekan *Yvonne Baby *Sergei Bondarchuk *Youssef Chahine *Souleymane Cissé *Gilbert de Goldschmidt *Mariangela Melato *Karel Reisz...

. It was co-written by Ponzi, male lead Francesco Nuti

Francesco Nuti

Francesco Nuti is an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in Prato, Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he formed the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci...

 and established screenwriters Franco Ferrini

Franco Ferrini

Franco Ferrini is an Italian screenwriter born on the 5 January 1944 in La Spezia. His works often fall into the genres of horror or thriller. He was one of the interviewees represented in the book Spaghetti Nightmares. He has frequently collaborated with Dario Argento...

 and Enrico Oldoini. The symbolic names of the characters mentioned in the Italian title, "Chiara" and "lo Scuro", mean "Bright" or "Clear", and "the Dark One" or "the Darkness", respectively.

Cast

• Francesco Nuti
  Francesco Nuti
  Francesco Nuti is an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in Prato, Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he formed the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci...
  
   - Francesco Piccoli a.k.a. "il Toscano" ("the Tuscan
  Tuscany
  Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
  
  ")
• Giuliana De Sio
  Giuliana De Sio
  Giuliana De Sio is an Italian actress and the sister of folk singer Teresa De Sio.-Biography and career:She was born in Salerno and lived in Cava de' Tirreni, her family's town of origin. She made her first public appearance when she was five years old, in a show at the Verdi theater in Salerno...
  
   - Chiara
• Marcello Lotti - (as Marcello Lotti) - "lo Scuro" ("the Dark One")
• Antonio Petrocelli - Mancino
• Novello Novelli (as Novellantonio Novelli) - Merlo
• Renato Cecchetto - Giovanni
• Claudio Casale
• Carlo Neri
• Claudio Spadaro
• Stefano Cuneo
• Pierangelo Pozzato (as Pietro Angelo Pozzato)