The French comedian Fernandel made five films in which he played the priest Don Camillo. Unfortunately, I placed this film above the original film in the series on my Netflix queue! Yes, that means I haven't yet seen the first film, but fortunately the second one gives a recap of events leading up to the next film. And, I promise to see the first one ASAP!
This film finds the priest being punished by the church for being so pugnacious. He's sent to a horrible parish--the top of a mountain where there are almost no people and those who do live there mostly just stay home. He has little to do and is bored. At the same time, his old town is NOT happy now that he's gone. Despite several townspeople hating him (especially the mayor), the rest of the folks are miserable and stop participating in church activities and the church falls into a state of disrepair. The bottom line is that the town, despite pushing him to be replaced, really wants him back.
Eventually he is returned to the town and there are several crises that need his help. The one that persists throughout the episode is the problem about building a dam. The city needs it to stop flooding but the guy with the land is being stubborn and won't agree to let them use it. The communist mayor hates to admit it, but he needs Don Camillo's help--not just with this but with his oldest son. Unfortunately for Don Camillo, he can't just punch people and make things right and must rely on God's guidance through some tough times. And, not surprisingly, by the end, change takes place in the most unusual and unexpected ways--and with the most unexpected people.
This is a nice, gentle comedy and it reminded me a bit of the Catanflas film "The Little Priest" (from Mexico). Both films feature very unconventional priests who sometimes resort to worldly solutions to problems. In the case of Catanflas, he might gamble--but all for God's glory. And with Fernandel, he uses his fists--but again, to God's glory. What makes this unusual, though, is that Jesus talks to him--telling him that this is NOT the way to solve problems! While this might seem a bit sacrilegious, it seemed pretty benign to me--and Jesus did not come off badly as a result.
By the way, I was surprised that this was an Italian film. I naturally assumed that with Fernandel it would be a French language film and him speaking Italian surprised me, as I'd only seen him speaking French in the other films in which I'd seen him.
This film finds the priest being punished by the church for being so pugnacious. He's sent to a horrible parish--the top of a mountain where there are almost no people and those who do live there mostly just stay home. He has little to do and is bored. At the same time, his old town is NOT happy now that he's gone. Despite several townspeople hating him (especially the mayor), the rest of the folks are miserable and stop participating in church activities and the church falls into a state of disrepair. The bottom line is that the town, despite pushing him to be replaced, really wants him back.
Eventually he is returned to the town and there are several crises that need his help. The one that persists throughout the episode is the problem about building a dam. The city needs it to stop flooding but the guy with the land is being stubborn and won't agree to let them use it. The communist mayor hates to admit it, but he needs Don Camillo's help--not just with this but with his oldest son. Unfortunately for Don Camillo, he can't just punch people and make things right and must rely on God's guidance through some tough times. And, not surprisingly, by the end, change takes place in the most unusual and unexpected ways--and with the most unexpected people.
This is a nice, gentle comedy and it reminded me a bit of the Catanflas film "The Little Priest" (from Mexico). Both films feature very unconventional priests who sometimes resort to worldly solutions to problems. In the case of Catanflas, he might gamble--but all for God's glory. And with Fernandel, he uses his fists--but again, to God's glory. What makes this unusual, though, is that Jesus talks to him--telling him that this is NOT the way to solve problems! While this might seem a bit sacrilegious, it seemed pretty benign to me--and Jesus did not come off badly as a result.
By the way, I was surprised that this was an Italian film. I naturally assumed that with Fernandel it would be a French language film and him speaking Italian surprised me, as I'd only seen him speaking French in the other films in which I'd seen him.