Le retour de Don Camillo

The films from the Don Camillo series were a favorite of mine even when I was only 10 or 12, despite many very adult themes - witness to the genius and timeless humor of writer Giovannino Guareschi. It's been a while but now that there's a restored DVD collection available (with some scenes I had never seen because they were cut from the dubbed release) we revisited the whole series and they do stand the test of time. Not only are they great comedy - physical as well as satirical - but they are also a kind of historic documents, capturing the soul of the time and region and politics like few others. The fact that much of the film is shot in a kind of realismo makes the absurd situations only the funnier!

I'm not a religious man myself but Fernandel's portrayal of the stalwart, choleric and compassionate priest is captivating; one of the all-time great performances in film history.