State buoni... se potete (1984)

Around the year 1500, the Italian priest Don Filippo Neri helps street kids and orphans in his poor little chapel. He is no clergyman by the book, but a true believer in terms good and bad ... See full summary »

Director:

Luigi Magni

Writers:

Luigi Magni (screenplay), Luigi Magni (story),

Stars:

Johnny Dorelli, Philippe Leroy, Rodolfo Bigotti

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Dorelli	...	Don Filippo Neri
Philippe Leroy	...	Ignazio di Loyola
Rodolfo Bigotti	...	Cirifischio
Flora Carabella
Giovanni Crippa	...	The Cardinal
Giovanni Crippi
Eurilla del Bono	...	Leonetta (as Eurilla Del Bona)
Franco Iavarone	...	Il capitano delle guardie
Mario Adorf	...	Sisto V
Renzo Montagnani	...	The Devil (Il diavolo)
Roberto Farris	...	Young Cirifischio
Federica Mastroianni	...	Young Leonetta
Iris Peynado	...	Il diavolo
Raimondo Ricci
Gianni Franco

Storyline

Around the year 1500, the Italian priest Don Filippo Neri helps street kids and orphans in his poor little chapel. He is no clergyman by the book, but a true believer in terms good and bad and he teaches this to his children. Neri is not very well-seen by the church and his only "friend" is the dry, humorless Ignatius De Loyola. But Neris real counterpart is the devil himself, working in endless incarnations in Neris direct neighborhood, trying to seduce his kids. His newest kid is the young thief Cirifischio, making a lot of problems. When Cirifischio has an argument with a young boy of a local aristocrat, the boy turns out to be a girl, the young Leonetta, some kind of a sex slave for her owner. Neri adopts her too, and the young people fall in love. 15 Years later, the devil is back and leads Cirifiscio onto a murder. Now lawless, the thief must flee Neri and leave Leonetta back. Neri does the best he can to save the thief's life, but does he have a chance against the fate? ...

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Plot Keywords:

devil | priest | children | church | punctuation in title | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

18 December 1984 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Filip Neri

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Excelsior Cinematografica, Radiotelevisione Italiana

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min 149 min (integral)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

Most of the children during the musical scenes fail to follow the song lyrics, moving their mouth out of time.

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Quotes

Filippo Neri: Behave yourselves, if you can. Everything else is vanity.

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Connections

Referenced in European Vacation (1985)

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Soundtracks

"Vanità di Vanità"
Composed by Angelo Branduardi
Performed by The Cast

User Reviews

life long bout for a human soul

The film is not so heavy and dramatic at all as my summary is. The story tells about an orphan boy who has all ability to belong to both side to the good and the evil as well. From his early years both of them would like to have him and one becomes winner finally.

What I really like in this film that how it shows the classic story for the viewer. There are two antagonistic buildings on a small square. One is owned by a priest (the savior of some helpless children) and the other one changes several times (sometimes it's a forge, another time it's a craftsman's house) but it hides the same evil all the time.

In my opinion the square is not else then our lives before and after the big decisions which can lead us to the both ways and the only choice is up to us...

I can recommend it for all who enjoy such tales and some artistic line (but not too much) from a film. My vote is 8 for it since the acting had some lesser fault (most likely on the child actors) but all for this I got a great compensation for example from the wonderful music.