Don Camillo and Peppone
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Don Camillo is a fictional Catholic priest and the main protagonist in Giovanni Guareschi's satirical tales.
Characterisation
Don Camillo Tarocci (his full name, which he rarely uses) is the hot-headed priest of a small village in the Po river valley in northern Italy, in the early postwar period. He is constantly at odds with the communist mayor Peppone (meaning, roughly, Big Joe, real name Giuseppe Bottazzi, played by Gino Cervi) and is also on very close terms with the crucifix in his village church. Through the crucifix he hears the voice of Christ. Don Camillo is a big man, tall and strong with hard fists.
The stories' village has been identified with Brescello after the production of movies based on the Guareschi's tales, but in the first story Don Camillo is introduced as the parish priest of Ponteratto.
What Peppone and Camillo have in common is an interest in the well being of the village. They also appear to have been both anti-fascist guerrilla fighters during the war; and while Peppone will make public speeches about how "the reactionaries" ought to be shot, and Don Camillo will preach fire and brimstone against "godless Communists", they actually grudgingly admire each other. Therefore they sometimes end up working together in peculiar circumstances, constantly squabbling, of course. Peppone takes his gang to the church and baptizes his children there (he opposes religion, of course, but you never know...) which makes him part of Don Camillo's flock.
The stories make a sympathetic depiction of Peppone and a number of other Communists, many of whom continue appearing from one story to another. However, there is little doubt that the writer is politically opposed to Communism, and his Communist characters are sympathetic despite, rather than because of, being such.
The books are clearly set in a society where the Communist Party enjoys a mass grassroots support, a fact which also their opponents cannot but acknowledge - a very different situation from the position of Communists in English-speaking countries where the books in translation proved highly popular.
The Christ in the crucifix often has much more understanding for the foibles of the people than Don Camillo, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience. Camillo loses his temper on occasion, and is sometimes involved in fist-fights, occasionally using a bench as a club. He is twice reprimanded for his behavior by the Church.
According to Guareschi, priests could break their staffs on his back for Camillo and communists kick him blue for Peppone, but Christ's voice came from his conscience.
Many stories are satirical takes on real-world political divide between Italian Roman Catholic Church and the Italian Communist Party, not to mention other worldly politics. Other tales are tragedies about schism, politically motivated murder and personal vendettas in a small village where everyone knows everyone else, but not everyone necessarily likes everyone else very much.
Sometimes the village is in trouble for the very real world floods of the Po river. Often either Camillo or Peppone tries to get an upper hand, but results may be unexpected, or the village gets a visitor, politician, cardinal or even youngsters from a rival village which usually bring their own problems.
Once Don Camillo visits the Soviet Union pretending to be a comrade. And when the pop culture and motorcycles arrive, Don Camillo has his hands full with the struggle against "decadence", especially when the Christ mainly smiles benevolently on the young rascals. In this later collection, Peppone is the proprietor of several profitable dealerships, riding the "Boom" years of the 60's 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 in public. Don Camillo has his own problems - the Second Vatican Council has worked changes in the Church, and a new assistant priest, who comes to be called Don Chichì, has been foisted upon him to see that the Don Camillo moves with the times. Don Camillo, of course, has other ideas.
The first Don Camillo story appeared in Guareschi's satirical magazine Candido in 1946. There have also been a few novels on a similar character, Don Candido, Archibishop of Trebilie (or Trebiglie). The name of this fictional village is a pun on Trepalle, a real village near Livigno. Trepalle's priest Don Alessandro Parenti was personally known by Giovanni Guareschi.
Books
- Mondo Piccolo "Don Camillo" (The Little World of Don Camillo, 1948)
- Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge (Don Camillo and His Flock, 1953)
- Il Compagno Don Camillo (Comrade Don Camillo, 1963)
- Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi (in USA: Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children, 1969, England: Don Camillo Meets Hell's Angels, 1970)
Two additional English-language short story collections:
- Don Camillo's Dilemma
- Don Camillo and the Devil
In the United Kingdom, the United States of America and possibly other English-speaking territories, the books were translated and published by Victor Gollancz Ltd as the following:
- The Little World of Don Camillo (published 1950; translated by Vincenzo Troubridge)
- Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son (published 1952; translated by Frances Frenaye)
- Don Camillo's Dilemma (published 1954; translated by Frances Frenaye)
- Don Camillo and the Devil (published 1957; the only book not translated but written in English by Guareschi himself)
- Comrade Don Camillo (published 1964; translated by Frances Frenaye)
- Don Camillo Meets Hell's Angels (published 1969)
The first five were compiled into a larger book published in 1980: The World of Don Camillo[1], to coincide with the television adaptation.
Adaptations
Films
A series of black-and-white films were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian co-productions and simultaneously released in both languages. Don Camillo was played by French actor Fernandel, Peppone by the Italian actor Gino Cervi. The author of the original stories was involved in the scripts and helped select the main actors. In many European countries the films still get re-runs on television fairly regularly.
- The Little World of Don Camillo (fr. Le Petit monde de Don Camillo/it. Don Camillo) [1]
- The Return of Don Camillo (fr. Le Retour de Don Camillo/it. Il Ritorno di Don Camillo) [2]
- Don Camillo's Last Round (fr La Grande Bagarre/it. Don Camillo e l'onorevole Peppone) [3]
- Don Camillo: Monsignor (fr Don Camillo Monseigneur/it. Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo) [4]
- Don Camillo in Moscow (fr Don Camillo en Russie/it. Il Compagno Don Camillo) [5]
There is another movie in 1983, directed by Terence Hill, who also starred as Don Camillo. It was an Italian production Colin Blakely performed Peppone, in one of his last roles for cinema.
- The world of Don Camillo (it. Don Camillo) [6]
Radio
A BBC Radio 4 English language radio dramatization of The Little World of Don Camillo was broadcast in December 2006[2]. It stared Ian Hogg as Don Camillo, Sean Prendergast as Peppone and Joss Ackland as the voice of Christ.
Television
In 1980, the BBC produced a television series based on the stories, starring the German actor Mario Adorf as Don Camillo, and Englishman Brian Blessed as Peppone. The narrator and Voice of the Christ was Cyril Cusack.
References
- ^ The World of Don Camillo, Giovanni Guareschi, pub 1980 Victor Gollancz Ltd; ISBN 0575029331
- ^ BBC Radio 4 Website
See also
- Marcelino pan y vino also features a talking crucifix
- Monsignor Quixote (Graham Greene novel about friendship between priest and Communist mayor)