**SPOILERS** One of my favorite movies made during Italy's fascist era is Blasetti's FOUR STEPS IN THE CLOUDS. A better translation of the Italian idiom "quattro passi" would make it "A Stroll in the Clouds." The story is about hen-pecked husband Paolo(Gino Cervi) who doesn't seem particularly blissed-out in his marriage to a shrewish Giuditta Rissone. He is a candy salesman and one day while off on his rounds he meets on a train a seemingly distraught young girl, Maria (the lovely Adriana Benetti), who cannot find her ticket and who is given a hard time by the obnoxious conductor (amusingly played by Lauro Gazzolo).
Later the two meet again, continuing their journey by country bus. The girl looks forlornly out the window. When the jovial clown of a bus driver announces the birth of his son, Maria appears even sadder. Paolo discerns that she too is going to have a baby, out of wedlock. The bus goes off the road. The girl continues home on foot. She begs the amiable Paolo to accompany her and pretend he is her husband...until she can reveal the truth to her parents. Paolo reluctantly consents, anticipates problems, but he charitably disposed to this nice girl in trouble.
At the girl's family's farm-home, the "couple" reveal that they are "married." At first angry, the parents soon accept the two. They insist Paolo remain a while when he says he must be off on business. The two must share a bedroom as a married couple. Paolo does the decent thing and sneaks into the barn to sleep in a haystack among the chickens. Inevitably, the truth is revealed, the enraged father is ready to send the dishonoring daughter away, but Paolo is able to convince him to show mercy to her, keep her at home, love his future grandchild.
Paolo leaves, goes back to the city and his shrill and unloving spouse, glad to be out of this scrape, yet regretful that this idyllic little "stroll in the clouds" of happiness that might-have-been is lost, and that something beautiful and wondrous is gone, perhaps the only moments of true and genuine love he may ever have known. In a stirring final image, we see him warming milk for his own child, clasping his head in a bit of anguish as the lid of the pan falls to the floor. It is an oddly sad final image to a wise, funny, but ultimately melancholy film.
Telling its story does not do justice to this film. One must experience the tone of the piece, the wonderfully observed little details, the interplay among a group of talented performers and bit-players. The scene on the bus with its madcap singing by a group of zany passengers, complete with impromptu trumpet-playing, suggests some future Fellini set-pieces. Carlo Romano as the exuberant driver cracks me up each time I watch this movie. Special mention must also go to Giacinto Molteni as the checker-playing, candy-sample-pilfering grandfather. He is priceless. His comment on the tribulations of old age is the great line, "The old ought to be killed while they are young."
Director Alessandro Blasetti was responsible for many of the best films of the fascist era including LA CENA DELLE BEFFE, ETTORE FIERAMOSCA, UN'AVVENTURA DI SALVATOR ROSA as well as post-war gems like PRIMA COMUNIONE and ALTRI TEMPI. Collaborating screenwriter was Cesare Zavattini, who was responsible for scripting many of De Sica's best movies.
The movie was remade by Mario Soldati in 1956 as the French-Italian SOUS LE CIEL DE PROVENCE/ERA DI VENERDI'17/THE VIRTUOUS BIGAMIST with Fernandel, and with Keanu Reeves in 1995 as A WALK IN THE CLOUDS. The movie was made the same year as Visconti's landmark OSSESSIONE. While that film was grim and fatalistic, the melancholy mood of this piece does admit of more hope and life-affirmation. It is a knowing and humane picture, and everyone I know who has had the good fortune to see it, loves it.
Later the two meet again, continuing their journey by country bus. The girl looks forlornly out the window. When the jovial clown of a bus driver announces the birth of his son, Maria appears even sadder. Paolo discerns that she too is going to have a baby, out of wedlock. The bus goes off the road. The girl continues home on foot. She begs the amiable Paolo to accompany her and pretend he is her husband...until she can reveal the truth to her parents. Paolo reluctantly consents, anticipates problems, but he charitably disposed to this nice girl in trouble.
At the girl's family's farm-home, the "couple" reveal that they are "married." At first angry, the parents soon accept the two. They insist Paolo remain a while when he says he must be off on business. The two must share a bedroom as a married couple. Paolo does the decent thing and sneaks into the barn to sleep in a haystack among the chickens. Inevitably, the truth is revealed, the enraged father is ready to send the dishonoring daughter away, but Paolo is able to convince him to show mercy to her, keep her at home, love his future grandchild.
Paolo leaves, goes back to the city and his shrill and unloving spouse, glad to be out of this scrape, yet regretful that this idyllic little "stroll in the clouds" of happiness that might-have-been is lost, and that something beautiful and wondrous is gone, perhaps the only moments of true and genuine love he may ever have known. In a stirring final image, we see him warming milk for his own child, clasping his head in a bit of anguish as the lid of the pan falls to the floor. It is an oddly sad final image to a wise, funny, but ultimately melancholy film.
Telling its story does not do justice to this film. One must experience the tone of the piece, the wonderfully observed little details, the interplay among a group of talented performers and bit-players. The scene on the bus with its madcap singing by a group of zany passengers, complete with impromptu trumpet-playing, suggests some future Fellini set-pieces. Carlo Romano as the exuberant driver cracks me up each time I watch this movie. Special mention must also go to Giacinto Molteni as the checker-playing, candy-sample-pilfering grandfather. He is priceless. His comment on the tribulations of old age is the great line, "The old ought to be killed while they are young."
Director Alessandro Blasetti was responsible for many of the best films of the fascist era including LA CENA DELLE BEFFE, ETTORE FIERAMOSCA, UN'AVVENTURA DI SALVATOR ROSA as well as post-war gems like PRIMA COMUNIONE and ALTRI TEMPI. Collaborating screenwriter was Cesare Zavattini, who was responsible for scripting many of De Sica's best movies.
The movie was remade by Mario Soldati in 1956 as the French-Italian SOUS LE CIEL DE PROVENCE/ERA DI VENERDI'17/THE VIRTUOUS BIGAMIST with Fernandel, and with Keanu Reeves in 1995 as A WALK IN THE CLOUDS. The movie was made the same year as Visconti's landmark OSSESSIONE. While that film was grim and fatalistic, the melancholy mood of this piece does admit of more hope and life-affirmation. It is a knowing and humane picture, and everyone I know who has had the good fortune to see it, loves it.