Les Belles années

This is the Italian equivalent to "Good-Bye Mr Chips" but with more sentimental stress and also with political statements. Maestro Perboni has socialist sympathies and writes articles in a socialist paper, which gets him into trouble with the school authorities which are forced to suspend him - this is 1894, and in those days harmless pacifistic socialism was considered a menace to society. His students object strongly to his suspension, and fortunately he has an ally among the other teachers, Maria Mercader, who succeeds in restoring him to his students, who adore him and have treated his successor with cruel but laughable practical jokes. The film is very tender, the boys are all simply adorable with all their individual traits and stories, and Maestro Perboni (Vittorio de Sica) does appear to be the ideal teacher. It's a lovely heart-warming film and a great complement to the Chips legend, but this is perhaps more realistic and less dreamy, while its romance is more palpable. The novel by Edmondo de Amicis is a classic in Italian literature, it has been filmed a number of times and also made into a 6-hour TV version, and it has always remained popular in Italy. It is in brief an indispensable evergreen in Italian cinema, and some scenes were actually directed by de Sica himself, while at the same time he directed "Bicycle Thieves". But for him like for the professor in the film, the boys are the main thing here.

This film was based on Edmondo De Amicis' 1886 book CUORE, meant to instill patriotic and moral values, and which has been filmed several times. It is set in 19th Century Turin, and its central character is a paternal and caring teacher, Maestro Perboni (Vittorio De Sica) whose young students adore him. This version includes a connecting plot, about the amorous longings of his co-teacher and co-boarder Clotilde (Maria Mercader) and her failed love for an ambitious young Lieutenant Gardena (Giorgio De Lullo). The best things in the film are the portrayals of the young boys and their personal lives. Of particular note among the young performers are Luciano De Ambrosis, who had been so unforgettable in De Sica's "The Children Are Watching Us;" Gino Luerini, the boy in love with Pier Angeli in "Tomorrow is too Late;" Vito Annichiarico, who was Anna Magnani's son in "Open City;" and Carlo Delle Piane, the Jimmy-Durante-nosed performer who would have success as an adult actor as a favorite in Pupi Avati's films. It is said that De Sica himself directed the sequences with the kids rather than credited director Duilio Coletti. This was made, after all, in the same period that De Sica shot his landmark "The Bicycle Thief." Made too at the time of great political turmoil in Italy, there is a subtext here of the need for social justice, as well as an anti-war message, and Perboni is a socialist whose ideas get him into trouble with the school authorities. Excised from the American release version called "Heart and Soul" are some of the political activities of Perboni as well as the patriotic vignettes about heroic boys that are in the uncut version as well as in the book. This is, all in all, a lovable and charming film, although much less rich than Luigi Comencini's 6-hour TV version of 1984.