Author: Anile, Alberto (edited by)

Year: 2025

Pages: 140

Publisher: Minimum fax; Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia

ISBN: 9788833895987

Description

Brescello, July 13, 1970: this day marked the beginning of shooting for the film Don Camillo, Peppone e i giovani d’oggi by French director Christian-Jaque. The film was based on the last novel by Giovannino Guareschi about the two relentless “frenemies” from the Emilian lowlands and was supposed to be the sixth movie starring Fernandel and Cervi, as well as the first in full colour. Despite the hellish heat, the first weeks went by without any particular issue, while also being marked by the media’s attention, both Italian and foreign, and the eager anticipation of the saga’s many aficionados. On July, 31, a sudden illness caused Fernandel to leave the set; a few months later, the actor’s death put a permanent end to the production. Mysteriously, the footage also disappeared: despite being hunted down halfway across Europe, all searches were in vain and the film seemed to have vanished, evaporated into legend.

Several years later, hundreds of camera tests fortuitously emerge. Thanks to the restoration and re-organisation carried out by the Cineteca Nazionale, they provide an accurate documentation of the footage that was shot at the time by Christian-Jaque. Drawing on these valuable, never-before-seen images and the original screenplay, which is also housed at the Centro Sperimentale, Alberto Anile offers an impassioned reconstruction of the film on paper, which features essays by Roberto Chiesi, Steve Della Casa, Luca Pallanch, Marco Vanelli, Dario E. Viganò and Anile himself, as well as interviews with former members of the cast, including Giancarlo Giannini and Graziella Granata.

L’ultimo Don Camillo thus brings back to life the long-lost and deeply missed final chapter of the beloved series, reviving the magic of a film that was meant to be yet never was.