The Little World of Don Camillo (No. 1 in the Don Camillo series)

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Don Camillo e Peppone (interpretati dai meravigliosi Fernandel e Cervi) sono (o dovrebbero essere) una specie di monumento nazionale, di cui non ho compreso il reale significato fin a quando non sono stata un po' più cresciutella. Perché Mondo Piccolo/Don Camillo non è solo la storia di un'amicizia tra un prete da battaglia e un compagno comunista, ma è la storia di un pezzetto d'Italia. In one story, Don Camillo visits the Soviet Union, pretending to be a comrade. In another, the arrival of pop culture and motorcycles propels Don Camillo into fighting "decadence", a struggle in which he finds he has his hands full, especially when Christ mainly smiles benevolently on the young rascals. In this later collection, Peppone is the owner of several profitable dealerships, riding the "Boom" years of the 1960s in Italy. He is no longer quite the committed Communist he once was, but he still does not get on with Don Camillo – at least not in public. Don Camillo has his own problems: the Second Vatican Council has brought changes in the Church, and a new assistant priest, who comes to be called Don Chichì, has been foisted upon him to see that Don Camillo moves with the times. Don Camillo, of course, has other ideas. I suspect the translator did a very good job for this edition -- if he could conjure laughs alongside great imagery, that's a great endorsement. But I'm sure there were a lot of other bits of comedy that couldn't cross the great divide created by language, time, and space. Still, I find a lot of the stories fulfilling, the comedy well-timed, and the experience relevant enough to revisit. It has always been odd to me - an atheist since my teens - that I love these books so much, but I came to realise over time that the stories are not about the triumph of Christianity over Communism but rather the triumph of humanity over cruelty, ignorance and brutality.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Little World of Don Camillo

Guareschi is clearly on the side of Don Camillo, but that simplifies the relationship between two protagonists - they share a common humanity, and a bond of friendship that was forged and hardened during wartime.

As the author notes in the preface of the first book, not the Christ, but "his" Christ, the voice of his conscience. Don Camillo in Moscow (Italian: Il compagno don Camillo; French: Don Camillo en Russie) [10] (1965)

The Little World of Don Camillo (1952) - IMDb

The Einaudi arrest occurred after Giovanni's satirical magazine, Candido, which had helped engineer the defeat of the 'Fronte Popolare' (the Communists) in '48, depicted Einaudi at the Quirinal Palace, surrounded by a presidential guard of giant bottles of Nebbiolo wine, suggesting perhaps that his love for the wine he produced on his farm near Dogliani might have eclipsed his commitment to the people. Don Camillo ( pronounced [ˈdɔŋ kaˈmillo]) and Peppone ( pronounced [pepˈpoːne]) are the fictional protagonists of a series of works by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi set in what Guareschi refers to as the "small world" of rural Italy after World War II. Most of the Don Camillo stories came out in the weekly magazine Candido, founded by Guareschi with Giovanni Mosca. These "Little World" (Italian: Piccolo Mondo) stories amounted to 347 in total and were put together and published in eight books, only the first three of which were published when Guareschi was still alive.

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Political forces other than the Communists and the Catholics have only a marginal presence. In one episode the local Communists are incensed at the announcement that the small Italian Liberal Party has scheduled an election rally in their town, and mobilize in force to break it up—only to discover virtually no local Liberals have turned up; the Liberal speaker, a middle-aged professor, speaks to a predominantly Communist audience and wins its grudging respect by his courage and determination.

The Little World of Don Camillo - Rotten Tomatoes The Little World of Don Camillo - Rotten Tomatoes

I got this book as a gift and it was a funny, heartwarming, enchanting little story, unlike anything I have read. I did an odd thing. I accidentally put the second Don Camillo film ahead of the first one on my Netflix queue. So I saw the second one first. This is not that bad a thing, however, as the second film recapped what happened in the first film when it began. But, because I loved the second film so much, I couldn't wait to see the first. It’s flat. Don Camillo’s world. Flat. Flatter than Norfolk. Flatter than the Netherlands. Flatter than a table. Completely, unrelentingly flat.This movie begins with the town in an uproar. It's a heavily divided town and the Communists have just won the election for mayor. The old guard is quite unhappy and the unhappiest is the town's priest, Don Camillo (Fernandel). And, through most of the film, he and the Mayor butt heads and fight like dogs. It's all quite silly but enjoyable. Contains stories which were not in a specific Italian-language edition (the original English edition was published under the same title in 1954) The author of these stories, Giovannino Guareschi, was a journalist, who, like the characters in this book, shared a history in WWII. Indeed, the character of Don Camillo himself was, supposedly, based upon a real priest, who was a partisan and, later prisoner at Dachau, during the war. Although the war is only alluded to by Peppone and Don Camillo, it is obvious that both men were comrades, during that time, and their shared history has made them trust each other.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Little World of Don Camillo, Series 5

Christian-Jaque began filming the French-Italian film Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi [11] in 1970 but had to stop filming due to Fernandel's falling ill, which resulted in his untimely death. The film was then realized in 1972 by Mario Camerini with Gastone Moschin playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander as Peppone. A Don Camillo ( The World of Don Camillo; Italian: Don Camillo) film was remade in 1983, an Italian production with Terence Hill directing and also starring as Don Camillo. Colin Blakely performed Peppone in one of his last film roles. [12] Radio [ edit ] In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." [3] Synopsis [ edit ] Don Camillo is constantly at odds with the Communist mayor, Giuseppe Bottazzi, better known as Peppone (meaning, roughly, 'Big Joe') and is also on very close terms with the crucifix in his town church. Through the crucifix he hears the voice of Christ. [3] The Christ in the crucifix often has far greater understanding than Don Camillo of the troubles of the people, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience. Don Camillo takes the Devil by the Tail. [Pub: Farrar, Straus, and Young, Inc., 1957] (Collection of stories for English publication, translated by Frances Frenaye)

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Many stories are satirical and take on the real world political divide between the Italian Roman Catholic Church and the Italian Communist Party, not to mention other worldly politics. Others are tragedies about schism, politically motivated murder, and personal vendettas in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but not everyone necessarily likes everyone else very much. Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1952] ( Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge, translated by Frances Frenaye)