Les belles années

When I was a schoolboy of ten,my beloved teacher used to read us a chapter of Edmundo De amicis's book every morning ,then we used to write a sentence which was its "moral".Then she would urge us to become admirable boys such as Garonne and De Rossi.And she would blame bad boy Franti ,the bad lot of his class.

Luigi Comencini was a master of the cinema ,and as far as childhood is concerned , the undisputed best Italian director ,as such works as "la finistra sul Luna Park" ," incompreso" " le avventure di Pinocchio" "Voltati Eugenio " or his final remake of " Marcelino "bear witness .

Although the novel had been already transferred to the screen , his version is the one to remember :make sure you watch the TV miniseries (and not the theater released film in digest form);it lasts 360 min,and it's a masterpiece from start to finish.

De Amicis's novel , in spite of its appeal,is sometimes obsolete to a contemporary viewer's eyes ;his lessons in righteousness sometimes get on your nerves in the long run .

Comencini transposed the action to WW1 and the school days vignettes become flashbacks of a lost paradise : all they learned about patriotism , duty ,and glory seems meaningless when you are confronted to the horrors of the slaughter ; it allows Bottini to meet a grown-up Garonne ,working on an engine in an admirable scene (suggested by the writer ; bourgeois Bottini sr telling his son: "when later you meet your schoolfriend in his blue overalls , do shake his hand ".)

However ,the characters have undergone some changes :if Garonne remains the kindest boy who has ever walked on Earth , many readers will be surprised by the treatment of the characters of De Rossi , Bottini SR and Franti .

De Rossi is called "leech" and is denied the first prize ;Bottini SR who boasts about his prowesses at school has a not-so-glorious school report book . But the most important change concerns Franti ;Comenci does not think a child can be thoroughly bad : what does one know about his family background?A beautiful school mistress makes him declaim a poem in a deeply moving scene, proving he too could have his day.But there's more:Franti's rebellion makes all the more sense ,since they 'll all be sent to war ,like lambs to the slaughter.

Every chapter of the novel features a "long story" which tells a boy's heroism ; Comencini replaces these tales by black and white films (the school scenes happen in 1899,instead of 1880)

An extremely good cast features French actors (Bernard Blier and Laurent Mallet ,as father and son ,who do not get on as well as in the novel;their last scene shows that Henri is beyond his bourgeois father 's control) ; but the stand out is Johnny Dorelli ,as admirable schoolteacher Perboni, who pretends to be faithful to the powers-that-be and runs behind the train and screams :"I'm a socialist ! I've always have been so!"

Childhood has always been a central issue in Comencini's work.He made an outstanding version of "Pinocchio",and in the cruel "lo scopone scientifico",a young girl knew better than her folks.Like "Pinocchio","Cuore "is adapted from an edifying book,written at the end of the nineteenth century by Edmondo de Amicis.This is a rather reactionary and passé work,with such ludicrous lines as "Well,Henri,our country is like an army:educated men are officers and working-men soldiers" moving,huh?

Comencini could not buy such claptrap.But he did love the old schoolmaster Perboni,and the novel featured entertaining little schoolmates stories,often melodramatic and mushy,tinged with nostalgia. So he kept the main characters,added some changes-the perfect little boy is ridiculed,the bad boy becomes a positive symbol of rebellion- ,but he extended the plot:instead of painting ,like Amicis ,school vignettes,he situated the story during WW1,when all the former pupils are soldiers,and the school tales are flashbacks.Comencini's genius points out so the huge gulf between what the brats learned at school,this molifying moral and the harsh truth they discover at war.But he shows gratefulness for Perboni,who ,in the last sequence,tells the hero:"I'm a socialist!I've always been!"

There are two versions of "Cuore":the two-hour version was shown in the movie theaters,and the six-hour one -the one to see -,on TV.

I believe that it may have been either in 1989 or 1990 during my stay in Italy, when I first saw this television mini series. I guess that it is an interpretation of Edmondo De Amicis' late 19th century immortal classic novel 'Cuore' (translated as 'Heart' from the Italian noun). As I am aware, the novel is also part of the Italian junior school language and literature learning program, and I have heard nothing but praise from all those that have read this novel. Therefore, I cannot really comment about the comparisons of how the novel ties with the mini series, but if the novel is as good as the mini series, then from what I have seen, it would class as a masterpiece.. I have never found an English translation of this novel, but nevertheless, the mini series is a superlative display of traditional values and morals which would be the dream of any parent having young children at school.

I was moved by the ethos that this mini series portrays, as it is centered around the memoirs of some soldiers at war, who reminisce on their memorable primary school days of when they were boys. These flashbacks make up the majority of this mini series. The morals in this mini series are exceptional and also shows how much has changed in the primary school system in the last hundred years. The school teacher Perboni plays the part of an ideal Victorian school teacher with excellent paternal instincts, having a genuine interest in all his pupils as if they were his own children.. Although all the young boys have their own unique and interactive character, two that stood out in my mind were Garrone (the gentle giant, being the tallest and stockiest of the pupils) and Franti (the rebellious little brat, but a good child at heart).

The scenes are focused on the normal interactions in a classroom of pupils from all different walks of life. Muratorino (Brickie) is nicknamed after his father who is a bricklayer by trade. In one episode, the school master practices his social morals well, when he is asked about an inkwell that was carved with a nail by a pupil's father who was serving time in jail while his son was a pupil at that school. At the end of the day, Perboni gathers his pupils together for the viewing of a silent movie that is meant to be educational and entertaining while displaying traditional values.. The pupils are then touched by the theme of the movie and relate it to what they have learnt during their school day, with the exception of Franti who ridicules all his class mates with a grin while they are in tears from emotion. In a later episode, another silent movie is shown to the pupils and this movie ends with a scene where a young boy loses his leg after having saved an army of soldiers from being gunned by the enemy. All the pupils are touched and again reduced to tears while we again expect to see Franti grin, BUT, surprise surprise, he is also moved to tears.

Although a school environment full of compassionate and understanding seems far fetched, the plot and theme can be appreciated in a realistic sense, as not all children were fortunate enough to have had the experience of a school environment at the end of the Victorian era. Hence, even at an early age, children would have felt privileged, therefore taking school much more seriously than they would have many decades later, simply to avoid the poverty of their forefathers. I highly recommend this to anyone that wants to reminisce on their earliest childhood and it always brings out the inner child from within us all.