Le retour de Don Camillo

At home we never tire of this, perhaps the best of the Don Camillo series. The characters are so perfectly drawn and the black and white photography is much more dramatic than colour! It gives a very true-to-life picture of the social and political scene in post-war Italy, with just enough exaggeration to have the spectators rolling in the aisles.

Another little gem to watch! Don Camillo returns to its cherished parish after a forced "séjour" in the mountain. The mayor is happy to see him back, cause he sees in him a formidable adversary. Yes Peppone and Don Camillo are adversary, but deep down inside, they need each other. Another look at life in a little post-WWII Italian village, where catholism and communism fight each other.

Out of 100, I give it 82. That's good for *** out of ****.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on September 10th, 2002.

Very good episode, like all the others to be honest, but this one stands out for a deep and strong message, religious and not.

In the first part, the forced retreat of don Camillo is a very intense piece of cinema. His personal "via crucis" up to the mountain, his dialogue with God (the conscience's speech ?) teach to us the real value of a redemption. Camillo's exile, thank God will last little time (Peppone knows anything ?), full of energies to fight again. For the glorious bell Gertrude fallen by the belfry, the tragic Po's flood, a singular battle of the clocks, the barbaric life in the boarding-schools and the last fascists' ardors.

Everybody having at least 60 years in Italy remembers the big Po river's flood (my parents told me plenty about it) in early 50s. These kind of movies are able to maintain living the records of both happy and tragic events that marked our history through the following generations. An epoch desperately needful of a common identity (and then the politics!) but basically already related with the simple, daily things.

Fernandel and Gino Cervi couldn't be more terrific in their roles. Like Fernandel was a perfect don Camillo, Gino Cervi was either a perfect Peppone, or Maigret in the french TV-series taken by Simenon's novels. Two underrated actors that inaugurated a prolific age of Italy/France co-productions.

Fernandel and Gino Cervi return as the conservative priest and the Communist mayor of a small city, who bicker, bicker, bicker but love each other, as well as the other people of their town: the old doctor who refuses to die, the landowner who won't give up a small part of his land to produce a new dam, and of course, Camillio's good friend, G*d, who guides the priest with a love that surpasseth all understanding. Duvivier returns as director, with a script that continues directly from the first movie, and offers some insight into the character of a town where everyone knows everyone

At first glance it seems an odd movie for Duvivier, softer than his pre-war fare, and more openly religious. Yet there was always something godlike about the workings of fate in his poetic realism, and perhaps this is simply reflective of the evolution of his ideas, or a canny choice for an artist whose works need a very large audience.

Fernandel and Cervi would reprise their roles in three more movies over the next dozen years. Duvivier would move on to other projects.

The films from the Don Camillo series were a favorite of mine even when I was only 10 or 12, despite many very adult themes - witness to the genius and timeless humor of writer Giovannino Guareschi. It's been a while but now that there's a restored DVD collection available (with some scenes I had never seen because they were cut from the dubbed release) we revisited the whole series and they do stand the test of time. Not only are they great comedy - physical as well as satirical - but they are also a kind of historic documents, capturing the soul of the time and region and politics like few others. The fact that much of the film is shot in a kind of realismo makes the absurd situations only the funnier!

I'm not a religious man myself but Fernandel's portrayal of the stalwart, choleric and compassionate priest is captivating; one of the all-time great performances in film history.