The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)

You won't be disappointed!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Don Camillo is, quite simply, one of the most heart-warming films ever made. Fernandel is perfectly cast in the title role, bringing Giovannino Guareschi's gentle short stories to life.The gentle humour and warm tone of the film allows it to convey its morals with nary a hint of didacticism.The comic potential of the ideological (and physical!) clashes between the fiery but lovable priest and his nemesis, the Communist mayor of the village, is fully exploited. Fernandel's facial expressions and timing are superb, as is the warmth he conveys.For those unfamiliar with the Don Camillo tales, Jesus (in the form of a crucifix on the church wall) guides (and frequently rebukes) Don Camillo, for his imperialistic attempts to try to win the hearts and minds of the villagers away from the Communist Party.Jesus literally functions as the moral adjudicator of the ideological war between the priest and the mayor, finding both equally guilty of empire-building. He frequently reminds Don Camillo of his duty to show compassion and love to his flock when Camillo becomes more interested in scoring points against the communists. It is Jesus who understands the peasants and has faith that everything will be fine in the end. Jesus understand the villagers more than they understand themselves, and shows empathy for them even when the priest feels they are insulting Him.Although ostensibly Roman Catholic, Christians of all other denominations will gain an enormous amount from watching this film. With its light touch, perfect casting and warmth, this is the perfect comedy. Very faithful to the original books, this film is highly recommended to young and old.

I think this is a very funny movie, Despite the fact it is a white&black film and you really can tell that it is placed on a certain time frame (end of 1940's - early 1950's), the plot is fun and universal. It gives you a glimpse of the life on a small Italian town, where simple things turns into hilarious situations, thanks to the strange relationship of friendship/rivalry between Don Camillo and Mayor Peppone. I was lucky to see the original french version (subtitled, of course) which is always better than hearing a translated version. I think that original voices -even if you do not understand the language- reveal the character's feelings, and give credibility to actor's performances. After the film, you get the impression that life is somewhat easier to cope with...

French comic actor Fernandel embodied the title role while remarkable Italian character actor Gino Cervi played his spiritual and political opponent. More than a rustic comedy, the film epitomizes the postwar political polarization in Italy and symbolizes the famous "compromesso storico"---historical compromise---under which Italy would long continue to be governed. This successful film spawned a series of popular sequels, mostly with the same two actors, all based on the Giovanni Guareschi novels. A point of clarification: this was a French-Italian co-production and was first released in the U.S. in its French-language version with English subtitles before the dubbed English version with narrator Orson Welles went into circulation. The Italian-language version, not readily available, is the most appropriate one.

This is, and has been since I was a young boy, one of my favorite movies.It's the story of a Catholic priest and a Communist mayor who are each others worst enemy and best friend. The dialogs are just great, but what I like most about these movies (there a are 5 in total) is that both main characters (Don Camillo and Peppone) are "real people". They act on impulse, say one thing but think the other, manipulate... they are real humans. When one of Peppone's people dies and asks for the church-bells to be rang at his funeral, Don Camillo refuses because he was no Catholic. Peppone orders a big bell to be placed in the town square which Don Camillo sabotages. The bell is broken and sounds horrible but at the end, Don Camillo rings his bells because "by asking for the bells, the boy was asking for God". This is one of these typical things I like about these movies.I've got the good fortune I also understand French and can watch these movies in that language. I can't imagine what they would sound like in English but I would advice anyone to watch them in the French version. I hate dubbed movies and can't imagine Fernandel speaking English (although in one movie he does which is hilarious). But in all, I think even the English version still is one of the best movies ever made.If you're not prejudiced against black and white and foreign movies, this is a movie you have to see. If you are, you don't know what you're missing.