The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)

Le Petit Monde de don Camillo ("The Little World of don Camillo"), or Don Camillo in Italian, is a 1952 French-Italian film directed by Julien Duvivier, starring Fernandel and Gino Cervi. It was the first film in the "Don Camillo" series, which made Fernandel an international star. The film was based on the novel Don Camillo by author Giovannino Guareschi. It was followed in 1953 by The Return of Don Camillo, also directed by Duvivier.

Synopsis

The story starts in a small [albeit unnamed] town, simply known as "a small world", in the Po lowlands of northern Italy, in the early summer of 1946. The town's Communist party led by Peppone has just won the majority of seats within the city council, an event which they exploit for propagandistic purposes – and with some non-vocal, but church bell-assisted protest by the outraged Don Camillo, the spiritual leader of the town's Christian political party –, when an unexpected event puts an instant stop to this arising conflict: Peppone has just added a new member, a son, to his family, and following a personal and pugilistic appeal by Peppone himself (as well as some admonishment from Christ) to a reluctant Don Camillo, the child is baptized in Camillo's church. Similar conflicts arising in the course of the story are settled between Don Camillo and Peppone in a similarly conflicting, but ultimately unified fashion, such as:

Actors