FILM: The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)

+ JMJ +

~ Watched DVD:  Grade 9, 2011-2012
~  Foreign film / comedy from Italy and France

~  Total time viewed:  2 hours
~  In a village of the Po valley in Italy, the priest and the communist mayor are always fighting to be the head of the community. If in secret, they admired and liked each other, politics still divided them ....  The people are hard as the country, but they are good at the bottom of their heart.
~  Loved it!

Film Review from the New York Times:

January 14, 1953

"Little World of Don Camillo," With Fernandel as the Priest

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

That lively account of robust squabbles between an Italian Communist Mayor and a village priest, which Giovanni Guareschi sketched in his popular book, "The Little World of Don Camillo" ...

... has been charmingly reconstructed and pictured on the screen in a French language dramatization, directed by Julien Duvivier.

Beautifully photographed in Italy with the brilliant French actor Fernandel playing the pugnacious padre and Gino Cervi in the role of the bull-headed Communist Mayor, this picture-story is resolved in a vigorous and amiable conflict "between two strong personalities."

Don Camillo and Peppone

Here is a characteristic we think should be fully impressed upon those who have any preconceptions of political factionalism in this film, which had its American première yesterday at the Bijou. For the notion appears to be widespread that the essential drama here is in a clash between Roman Catholicism and Communist ideology.

While the proud and determined padre undoubtedly typifies a man of rigid devotion to the established disciplines of the Church and the Mayor is patently symbolic of the comradeship of the working class; while the cross and the hammer and-sickle are frequently juxtaposed and there is some occasional discussion of social obligations and attitudes, the essential complication out of which humor and humanity flow is simply a tangle of the natures of two stubborn peasants in a village on the Po. And the moral is not the triumph of either, but the evident brotherhood of both.

When the Communists celebrate their victory with a noisy rally in the village square, the priest tries to drown out their ranting with a tintinnabulation of the church bells. And when the Mayor tries to stop the bell-ringing, the priest, his old comrade-in-arms during the war in the resistance movement, joyfully slugs it out with him. Likewise, the two stalwart rivals battle heroically and long over who shall first give a recreation park to the people.

Withal, when the local landowners force the underpaid peasants to strike, the priest speaks up for the latter, at the cost of being called a "Communist," and he secretly joins with the Mayor in milking the poor, untended cows. When a couple of star-crossed young lovers attempt to commit suicide, he rallies the villagers to their rescue and makes their families permit them to be wed. 

And when the old boy is finally directed by his bishop to leave the town, he receives a warm and loving send-off from his old friend, the Mayor, and the "reds."

This may not be wholly realistic in its picture of the state of affairs in Italy today, and it is certainly not without a clear tracing of strong idealism and sentiment. But its confidence in human goodness, regardless of politics, is inspiring, at least and its candid display of contradictions in words and deeds makes for good, healthy fun.

Much of the charm of the picture is due to Fernandel, who plays the priest with explosive gusto and infinite alteration of moods. 

His Don Camillo is a horse-faced bumpkin, just this side of a hiph-class clown. And his grotesqueries are outrageous, but his spirit is plainly generous and warm. Even the private conversations the priest holds with his God in the church are played by Fernandel with credibility and are staged with simplicity and restraint.

Signor Cervi is no less artful as the barrel-chested Mayor who maintains his dignity and his authority as the temporal spokesman for the people of the town. His pompous and taciturn nature is a fine foil for the flaring violence of the priest. And Sylvie. as an old school teacher; Vera Talqui, as a patrician girl, and Franco Interlenghi, as her Communist suitor, are strong among the other village types.

There may be guileless simplicity and calculated comedy in this folk tale, but, thanks to M. Duvivier and all his company, it makes up into a cheerful and wholesome film.

THE LITTLE WORLD OF DON CAMILLO, adaptation and dialogue by Julien Duvivier and Rene Barjavel from the novel by Giovanni Guareschi; directed by M. Duvivier. At the Bijou. 

Don Camillo . . . . . Fernandel

Peppone . . . . . Gino Cervi

Christiana . . . . . Sylvie

Gina . . . . . Verz Talqui

Mariolino . . . . . France Interlenghi

Bishop . . . . . Charles Vissieres

Filotti . . . . . Luciano Manara

Brusco . . . . . Armando Migilari


Excerpt from the Delightful Book:

Religion: Gospel and Homily at Mass - The Kingdom Parables (Sunday, July 17, 2011)

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From Matthew 13:24-43

a)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the man who sowed good seed in his field ....

The Parable of the Wheat and Tares 

Immature tares -- very difficult to distinguish from wheat at this stage.

 Almost mature wheat and tares ... the tares are really starting to stand out now.

Wheat and Tares

 

The wheat gathered into the barn and the tares burnt.  (Matthew 13:30)

b)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the mustard seed .... 

"... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed .... Nothing will be impossible for you."  Matthew 17:20

c)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast ....

Yeast added to flour

Yeast makes the bread rise

Knead the bread, shape, then bake.

Hmm ... delicious!

~  Discussion at home during dinner, then again during lunch the next day:  Total time - 40 mins.

~  Some highlights from Fr. Saunders's homily:  

God allowed the wheat to live with the weeds.  Father talked about the "tare," which in the Bible is a noxious weed that is like a narcotic, in that it can cause dizziness when eaten and death when taken in large amounts.  He talked about how we need to be careful because tare can look like wheat.  He especially talked about how kids going to high school or college for the first time need to be careful not to be fooled by the weeds and be poisoned.

I also told the kids about how the world sometimes disguises the poison and presents it as sweet, like in the seemingly harmless scene in the Audrey Hepburn movie, "Sabrina," where she is shown sitting on her dressing table in her Paris apartment, looking beautiful in her dressing gown, writing to her Father, and proudly saying that she is now "in the world and OF the world."  A person who is beguiled by Audrey Hepburn and the movie, AND lacks spiritual formation, can be persuaded to live that way, when Christ has really called us to be "in the world, but NOT of the world."

 Quote from "Sabrina" (1953)

I also talked about how the devil is sneaky and inserts little bits of poison, again in seemingly harmless places, like in an otherwise good book or movie -- all it takes is one poisonous scene, picture or page, and it's stuck in our minds forever.  We don't know whether the person writing the book or making the film is a wheat or a weed, that's why I need to screen these things for you, while you're still kids.  That way, the devil won't rob you of your precious innocence and youth.  It's our way of protecting you from the weeds of this world.  When you're older, with stronger spiritual formation and experience, then you can screen everything for yourself.

Films: Modern Times - Grade 9, 2011-2012

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DVD:  Modern Times (1936)

• Total time:  1.5 hours
• Viewed on:  Tuesday, August 9, 2011
• Actors:  Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard and Henry Bergman 
• Director:  Charles Chaplin
• Writer:  Charles Chaplin
• The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman. 

Film Review from Catholic News Service:

Charlie Chaplin's insightful fable of man versus machine centers in the artificiality of industrialized society and the anxieties caused by the Depression as Charlie dances his way through the hazards of an assembly line job. 

A model of silent comedic technique and refined slapstick humor, the movie marks the last appearance of the Little Tramp character as Charlie takes his final walk down the long empty road, this time in the company of Paulette Goddard, who adds an element of freshness to the plot's old-fashioned romance. (A-I) (G)