The Return of Don Camillo

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.