(Some spoilers) This was a very popular film when it was first shown in America in 1978, about five years after its Italian release, and was probably one of the best-known and liked Italian film among the general public in America, along with LA DOLCE VITA, CINEMA PARADISO, and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. It was directed by Franco Brusati, and this may be his best achievement.
This immensely famous bittersweet comedy stars Nino Manfredi as a Chaplinesque immigrant waiter, Nino, trying desperately to assimilate among the cool and methodical Swiss. His presence in the country is as a temporary worker and much of his time is spent trying to stay afloat and to avoid deportation. Right from the start the film captures the pain and confusion of the outsider with incisive precision, as when he is denounced for public urination.
There are many great scenes. One is when Nino finds employment in a chicken farm and lives among a family of eccentrics who find the impersonation of chickens to be the highest of mankind's callings. Another scene, in which Nino watches a group of Swiss youth bathing in a lake and looking like gods in some kind of sensual Valhalla, encapsulates his feelings of inferiority and alienation. An Italian worker "drag show", funny and sad, is performed by these men that have left behind friends and family in "sunny Italy", to return only at Easter and Christmas. Another great moment occurs when Nino modifies his appearance to attempt to look more north-European, and cannot help but revert to his Italian persona when the locals cheer on the Swiss soccer team and he vociferously applauds an Italian goal.
Nino Manfredi rarely had a better role than this one, and Anna Karina, with whom he is tentatively in love, is fine as Elena, the Greek teacher-in-exile with a musical-prodigy of a young son. Johnny Dorelli is memorable as the wealthy Italian industrialist who befriends Nino, but who overdoses when confronted with financial ruin, taking with him some of Nino's own money. Bad luck dogs our hero, but he seems to emerge from the tunnel of despair with renewed hope and literally so at the film's end.
The term "Bread and Chocolate" in Italian refers to a snack of Nutella spread on bread and is the equivalent of "peaches and cream" or "fine and dandy," which is used with irony here in this great "commedia all'italiana."
This immensely famous bittersweet comedy stars Nino Manfredi as a Chaplinesque immigrant waiter, Nino, trying desperately to assimilate among the cool and methodical Swiss. His presence in the country is as a temporary worker and much of his time is spent trying to stay afloat and to avoid deportation. Right from the start the film captures the pain and confusion of the outsider with incisive precision, as when he is denounced for public urination.
There are many great scenes. One is when Nino finds employment in a chicken farm and lives among a family of eccentrics who find the impersonation of chickens to be the highest of mankind's callings. Another scene, in which Nino watches a group of Swiss youth bathing in a lake and looking like gods in some kind of sensual Valhalla, encapsulates his feelings of inferiority and alienation. An Italian worker "drag show", funny and sad, is performed by these men that have left behind friends and family in "sunny Italy", to return only at Easter and Christmas. Another great moment occurs when Nino modifies his appearance to attempt to look more north-European, and cannot help but revert to his Italian persona when the locals cheer on the Swiss soccer team and he vociferously applauds an Italian goal.
Nino Manfredi rarely had a better role than this one, and Anna Karina, with whom he is tentatively in love, is fine as Elena, the Greek teacher-in-exile with a musical-prodigy of a young son. Johnny Dorelli is memorable as the wealthy Italian industrialist who befriends Nino, but who overdoses when confronted with financial ruin, taking with him some of Nino's own money. Bad luck dogs our hero, but he seems to emerge from the tunnel of despair with renewed hope and literally so at the film's end.
The term "Bread and Chocolate" in Italian refers to a snack of Nutella spread on bread and is the equivalent of "peaches and cream" or "fine and dandy," which is used with irony here in this great "commedia all'italiana."