When I was a schoolboy of ten,my beloved teacher used to read us a chapter of Edmundo De amicis's book every morning ,then we used to write a sentence which was its "moral".Then she would urge us to become admirable boys such as Garonne and De Rossi.And she would blame bad boy Franti ,the bad lot of his class.
Luigi Comencini was a master of the cinema ,and as far as childhood is concerned , the undisputed best Italian director ,as such works as "la finistra sul Luna Park" ," incompreso" " le avventure di Pinocchio" "Voltati Eugenio " or his final remake of " Marcelino "bear witness .
Although the novel had been already transferred to the screen , his version is the one to remember :make sure you watch the TV miniseries (and not the theater released film in digest form);it lasts 360 min,and it's a masterpiece from start to finish.
De Amicis's novel , in spite of its appeal,is sometimes obsolete to a
contemporary viewer's eyes ;his lessons in righteousness sometimes get on your nerves in the long run .
Comencini transposed the action to WW1 and the school days vignettes become flashbacks of a lost paradise : all they learned about patriotism , duty ,and glory seems meaningless when you are confronted to the horrors of the slaughter ; it allows Bottini to meet a grown-up Garonne ,working on an engine in an admirable scene (suggested by the writer ; bourgeois Bottini sr telling his son: "when later you meet your schoolfriend in his blue overalls , do shake his hand ".)
However ,the characters have undergone some changes :if Garonne remains the kindest boy who has ever walked on Earth , many readers will be surprised by the treatment of the characters of De Rossi , Bottini SR and Franti .
De Rossi is called "leech" and is denied the first prize ;Bottini SR who boasts about his prowesses at school has a not-so-glorious school report book . But the most important change concerns Franti ;Comenci does not think a child can be thoroughly bad : what does one know about his family background?A beautiful school mistress makes him declaim a poem in a deeply moving scene, proving he too could have his day.But there's more:Franti's rebellion makes all the more sense ,since they 'll all be sent to war ,like lambs to the slaughter.
Every chapter of the novel features a "long story" which tells a boy's heroism ; Comencini replaces these tales by black and white films (the school scenes happen in 1899,instead of 1880)
An extremely good cast features French actors (Bernard Blier and Laurent Mallet ,as father and son ,who do not get on as well as in the novel;their last scene shows that Henri is beyond his bourgeois father 's control) ; but the stand out is Johnny Dorelli ,as admirable schoolteacher Perboni, who pretends to be faithful to the powers-that-be and runs behind the train and screams :"I'm a socialist ! I've always have been so!"
