Don Camillo
Encyclopedia
Don Camillo is the main character created by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi
(1908-1968), and is based on the historical Roman Catholic priest, WW II partisan and detainee of the concentration camps of Dachau and Mauthausen, Don Camillo Valota . Don Camillo is one of two protagonists, the other being the communist mayor of the town, known to everyone as Peppone. The stories are set in what Guareschi refers to as a "small world" and are an excellent representation of what rural Italy was like after the second world war.
Most of the Don Camillo stories came out in the weekly magazine Candido, founded by Guareschi with Giovanni Mosca. These "Little World" ("Mondo Piccolo") 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.
Camillo Tarocci (his full name, which he rarely uses) is the hotheaded priest of a small town in the Po valley
in northern Italy
. Don Camillo is a big man, tall and strong with hard fists. For the films, the town chosen to represent that of the books was Brescello
(which apart from being a lovely municipality, currently has a fine museum dedicated to Don Camillo and Peppone including a Russian T34 Tank) 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.
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. 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.
What Peppone and Camillo have in common is an interest in the well-being of the town. They also appear to have both been partisan
fighters during the war
; and while Peppone makes public speeches about how "the reactionaries" ought to be shot, and Don Camillo preaches fire and brimstone against "godless Communists", they actually grudgingly admire each other. Therefore they sometimes end up working together in peculiar circumstances, though keeping up their squabbling. Thus, although he publicly opposes the Church as a Party duty, Peppone takes his gang to the church and baptizes his children there, which makes him part of Don Camillo's flock. Don Camillo also never condemns Peppone himself, but the ideology of communism which is in direct opposition to the church.
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 vendetta
s in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but not everyone necessarily likes everyone else very much.
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 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 '60s 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 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.
Despite their bickering, the goodness and generosity of each character can be seen during hard times. They always understand and respect each other when one is in danger, when a flood devastates the town, when death takes a love one, and in many other situations in which the two "political enemies" show their mutual respect for one another and fight side by side for the same ideals (even if they are each conditioned by their individual public roles in society).
Guareschi created a second series of novels about a similar character, Don Candido, Archbishop of Trebilie (or Trebiglie, literally three marble balls or three billiard balls). The name of this fictional town is a play on words of Trepalle
(literally 'three balls'), a real town (near Livigno
) whose priest was an acquaintance of Guareschi's.
The following Italian language books have been published posthumously:
The following US English translations have been published:
The following UK English translations have been published:
The following five were compiled into a larger book published in 1980: The World of Don Camillo, to coincide with the television adaptation:
Notes: The World of Don Camillo does not contain all the stories contained in the individual books. The Italian, US English and UK English publications often have a different number of stories within them thereby making it difficult to acquire a complete collection of the Don Camillo stories.
, Peppone by the Italian actor Gino Cervi
. The author of the original stories was involved in the scripts and helped select the main actors. To this day, the films are screened in Europe.
Mario Camerini began filming the French-Italian film Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi but had to stop filming due to Fernandel's falling ill, which unfortunately resulted in his untimely death. The film was then completed in 1972 with Gastone Moschin
playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander
as Peppone. A Don Camillo (The world of 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.
English language radio dramatization of The Little World of Don Camillo was broadcast in 2001 starring Alun Armstrong
as Don Camillo, John Moffatt
as the Bishop, Shaun Prendergast
as Peppone and Joss Ackland
as God, and rebroadcast in July 2010 on BBC Radio 7.
Four further BBC Radio
series of The Little World of Don Camillo were made, with the final series broadcast on BBC Radio 4
in December 2006. Ian Hogg
replaced Armstrong as Don Camillo, while Prendergast, Ackland and Moffatt all continued to reprise their roles as Peppone, God and the Bishop respectively. BBC Radio 7 broadcast the second and third series throughout August and September 2010 with the fourth series beginning on the 6th October.
produced the television series The Little World of Don Camillo, based on the stories, starring Italian-German actor Mario Adorf
as Don Camillo and Englishman Brian Blessed
as Peppone. The narrator and Voice of the Christ was Cyril Cusack
.
writer and politician, Kukrit Pramoj
, into his own 1954 novel, Phai Daeng (Red Bamboo).
Giovannino Guareschi
Giovannino Oliviero Giuseppe Guareschi was an Italian journalist, cartoonist and humorist whose most famous creation is the priest Don Camillo.-Life and career:...
(1908-1968), and is based on the historical Roman Catholic priest, WW II partisan and detainee of the concentration camps of Dachau and Mauthausen, Don Camillo Valota . Don Camillo is one of two protagonists, the other being the communist mayor of the town, known to everyone as Peppone. The stories are set in what Guareschi refers to as a "small world" and are an excellent representation of what rural Italy was like after the second world war.
Most of the Don Camillo stories came out in the weekly magazine Candido, founded by Guareschi with Giovanni Mosca. These "Little World" ("Mondo Piccolo") 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.
Characterisation
In the post-war years (after 1945), DonDon (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...
Camillo Tarocci (his full name, which he rarely uses) is the hotheaded priest of a small town in the Po valley
Po Valley
The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km² including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po River basin; it runs from the Western Alps to the...
in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Don Camillo is a big man, tall and strong with hard fists. For the films, the town chosen to represent that of the books was Brescello
Brescello
Brescello is a comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 80 km northwest of Bologna and about 25 km northwest of Reggio Emilia...
(which apart from being a lovely municipality, currently has a fine museum dedicated to Don Camillo and Peppone including a Russian T34 Tank) 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.
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
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
in his town church. Through the crucifix he hears the voice of Christ. 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.
What Peppone and Camillo have in common is an interest in the well-being of the town. They also appear to have both been partisan
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
fighters during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; and while Peppone makes public speeches about how "the reactionaries" ought to be shot, and Don Camillo preaches fire and brimstone against "godless Communists", they actually grudgingly admire each other. Therefore they sometimes end up working together in peculiar circumstances, though keeping up their squabbling. Thus, although he publicly opposes the Church as a Party duty, Peppone takes his gang to the church and baptizes his children there, which makes him part of Don Camillo's flock. Don Camillo also never condemns Peppone himself, but the ideology of communism which is in direct opposition to the church.
Many stories are satirical and take on the real world political divide between the Italian Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, not to mention other worldly politics. Others are tragedies about schism, politically motivated murder, and personal vendetta
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
s in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but not everyone necessarily likes everyone else very much.
In one story, Don Camillo visits the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
pretending to be a comrade
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
. 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 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 '60s 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
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
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.
Despite their bickering, the goodness and generosity of each character can be seen during hard times. They always understand and respect each other when one is in danger, when a flood devastates the town, when death takes a love one, and in many other situations in which the two "political enemies" show their mutual respect for one another and fight side by side for the same ideals (even if they are each conditioned by their individual public roles in society).
Guareschi created a second series of novels about a similar character, Don Candido, Archbishop of Trebilie (or Trebiglie, literally three marble balls or three billiard balls). The name of this fictional town is a play on words of Trepalle
Trepalle
Trepalle is a village in the Italian Alps, a frazione of Livigno, Lombardy. It is considered to be the village located at the highest altitude in Europe...
(literally 'three balls'), a real town (near Livigno
Livigno
Livigno is a town and comune in the province of Sondrio, in the region of Lombardy, Italy, located in the Italian Alps.- Geography :Livigno is located 1,816 metres above sea level. Livigno's main river is called Aqua Granda or Spöl. Trepalle, a frazione in the municipality of Livigno, is...
) whose priest was an acquaintance of Guareschi's.
Books in chronological order
The following Italian language books have been published:- Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1948] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo
- Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1953] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo and His Flock
- Mondo Piccolo: Il compagno Don Camillo. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1963] Literally: Comrade Don Camillo
The following Italian language books have been published posthumously:
- Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1969] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo and the Youth of Today
- Gente così. 1980.
- Lo spumarino pallido. 1981.
- Noi del Boscaccio. 1983.
- L'anno di Don Camillo. 1986.
- Il decimo clandestino. 1987.
- Ciao Don Camillo. 1996.
- Don Camillo e Don Chichì. 1996. The complete version of Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi
- Don Camillo e Peppone. [Pub: Rizzoli, 2007] ISBN 978-88-486-0355-3
The following US English translations have been published:
- The Little World of Don Camillo. [Pub: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1950] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo, translated by Una Vincenzo Troubridge.)
- Don Camillo and His Flock. [Pub: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1952] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo's Dilemma. [Pub: Farrar, Strauss, and Young, Inc., 1954] (Collection of stories for English publication, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo takes the Devil by the Tail. [Pub: Farrar, Strauss, and Young, Inc., 1957] (Collection of stories for English publication, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Comrade Don Camillo. [Pub: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Inc., 1964] (Mondo Piccolo: Il Compagno Don Camillo, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children. [Pub: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Inc., 1970] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi, translated by L.K. Conrad.)
The following UK English translations have been published:
- The Little World of Don Camillo. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1951] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo, translated by Una Vincenzo Troubridge.)
- Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1952] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo's Dilemma. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1954] (Collection of stories for English publication, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo and the Devil. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1957] (Collection of stories for English publication, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Comrade Don Camillo. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1964] (Mondo Piccolo: Il Compagno Don Camillo, translated by Frances Frenaye.)
- Don Camillo Meets Hell's Angels. [Pub: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1970] (Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi, translated by L.K. Conrad.)
The following five were compiled into a larger book published in 1980: The World of Don Camillo, to coincide with the television adaptation:
- The Little World of Don Camillo.
- Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son.
- Don Camillo's Dilemma.
- Don Camillo and the Devil.
- Comrade Don Camillo.
Notes: The World of Don Camillo does not contain all the stories contained in the individual books. The Italian, US English and UK English publications often have a different number of stories within them thereby making it difficult to acquire a complete collection of the Don Camillo stories.
Films
A series of black-and-white films were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian coproductions and were simultaneously released in both languages. Don Camillo was played by French actor FernandelFernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin , better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born in Marseille, France, he was a comedy star who first gained popularity in French vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues...
, Peppone by the Italian actor Gino Cervi
Gino Cervi
Gino Cervi was an Italian actor of international fame.Cervi was born in Bologna. His father was the theatre critic Antonio Cervi.In 1928, he married Nini Gordini and they had a son, Tonino Cervi...
. The author of the original stories was involved in the scripts and helped select the main actors. To this day, the films are screened in Europe.
- The Little World of Don CamilloLe Petit monde de Don CamilloLe Petit monde de Don Camillo is a 1952 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....
(fr. Le Petit monde de Don Camillo / it. Don Camillo) - The Return of Don Camillo (fr. Le Retour de Don Camillo / it. Il Ritorno di Don Camillo)
- Don Camillo's Last Round (fr. La Grande Bagarre / it. Don Camillo e l'onorevole Peppone)
- Don Camillo: Monsignor (fr. Don Camillo Monseigneur / it. Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo)
- Don Camillo in MoscowDon Camillo in MoscowDon Camillo in Moscow is a 1965 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Comencini. It's the fifth and penultimate film in the Don Camillo series.-Cast:*Fernandel ... Don Camillo*Gino Cervi ... Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi*Leda Gloria ... Maria Bottazzi...
(fr. Don Camillo en Russie / it. Il Compagno Don Camillo)
Mario Camerini began filming the French-Italian film Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi but had to stop filming due to Fernandel's falling ill, which unfortunately resulted in his untimely death. The film was then completed in 1972 with Gastone Moschin
Gastone Moschin
Gastone Moschin is an Italian actor.Born in San Giovanni Lupatoto , he began his career in the 1950s as theatre actor, first with the Stable Theater in Genoa and then with the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. In the same period Moschin also began to play in feature films, such as La rivale and L'audace...
playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
as Peppone. A Don Camillo (The world of Don Camillo) film was remade in 1983, an Italian production with Terence Hill
Terence Hill
Terence Hill is an Italian actor. He is best known for starring in multiple action and western films together with his longtime filmpartner Bud Spencer.-Biography:...
directing and also starring as Don Camillo. Colin Blakely
Colin Blakely
Colin George Blakely was a Northern Irish character actor. He was considered an actor of great range.-Early life:...
performed Peppone in one of his last film roles.
- The world of Don Camillo (it. Don Camillo)
Radio
A BBC RadioBBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
English language radio dramatization of The Little World of Don Camillo was broadcast in 2001 starring Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong (actor)
Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
as Don Camillo, John Moffatt
John Moffatt (actor)
John Moffatt is an English actor and playwright, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio....
as the Bishop, Shaun Prendergast
Shaun Prendergast
Shaun Prendergast is a British actor and writer. Prendergast has made hundreds of appearances in television, film and on radio and written extensively for the stage, television, radio and film. He played Greg Doland in British soap opera Emmerdale from August 2007 until July 2008. In 2009 he...
as Peppone and Joss Ackland
Joss Ackland
Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
as God, and rebroadcast in July 2010 on BBC Radio 7.
Four further BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
series of The Little World of Don Camillo were made, with the final series broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
in December 2006. Ian Hogg
Ian Hogg (actor)
Ian Hogg is a British actor.- Early life :He is the son of a doctor and was educated at Durham School, Durham University and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
replaced Armstrong as Don Camillo, while Prendergast, Ackland and Moffatt all continued to reprise their roles as Peppone, God and the Bishop respectively. BBC Radio 7 broadcast the second and third series throughout August and September 2010 with the fourth series beginning on the 6th October.
Television
In 1980, the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
produced the television series The Little World of Don Camillo, based on the stories, starring Italian-German actor Mario Adorf
Mario Adorf
Mario Adorf is a German film and stage actor, best known for his lead role in the 1978 film The Tin Drum.-Biography:...
as Don Camillo and Englishman Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
as Peppone. The narrator and Voice of the Christ was Cyril Cusack
Cyril Cusack
Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...
.
Novel
The Little World of Don Camillo was taken and adapted by the famous ThaiThai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
writer and politician, Kukrit Pramoj
Kukrit Pramoj
Mom Rajawongse Kukrit Pramoj was a Thai politician and scholar. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand 1973-1974 and was the thirteenth Prime Minister of Thailand, serving in office from 1975-1976.- Early years:Of royal descent, M.R...
, into his own 1954 novel, Phai Daeng (Red Bamboo).
See also
- Marcelino pan y vinoMarcelino Pan y VinoMarcelino Pan Y Vino is a 1955 Spanish film. It was a success, and other countries have produced versions of it. The 1955 film was written by José María Sánchez Silva, who based it on his novel, and directed by Ladislao Vajda...
also features a talking crucifix - Monsignor QuixoteMonsignor QuixoteMonsignor Quixote is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1982. The book is a pastiche of the classic Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes with many moments of hilarious comedy, but also offers reflection on matters such as life after a dictatorship, Communism, and the Catholic...
(Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
novel about friendship between priest and Communist mayor)