Un garibaldino al convento (1942)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica

Film Review

Just a few years before he found international acclaim with his neo-realist masterpieces Sciuscià (1946) and Ladri di biciclette (1948), Italian film director Vittorio De Sica enjoyed success in his home country with somewhat lighter fare, such as this enchanting (and slightly anarchic) comedy.  Un garibaldino al convento reunites De Sica with the magnificent Carla Del Poggio, the star of a previous feature, Maddalena, zero in condotta (1940).  It is just one inspired casting choice of many, with María Mercader perfect for the part of Del Poggio's schoolgirl rival and Leonardo Cortese looking suitably heroic and vulnerable as the wounded Garibaldi partisan of the film's title.

At the time the film was made (in the early 1940s) Italian filmmakers were highly constrained in the choice of subjects available to them.  Essentially they could either make pro-Mussolini propaganda films or crowdpleasing comedies.  In either case, the films had only a tenuous connection with real life as it was experienced by most Italian people at the time, although the more daring film directors and screenwriters did occasionally try to smuggle a subversive subtext past the censors.  In Un garibaldino al convento, a film that revolves around two wayward girls who risk censure by coming to the aid of an injured soldier in Garibaldi's army, it is not too difficult to read an allegory of defiance against a regime that had outstayed its welcome.

Very different in style and tone to De Sica's subsequent neo-realist films, Un garibaldino al convento is more in the tradition of classic Italian comedy, with some unimaginably funny comedy set-pieces punctuating a well-oiled narrative that treads a thin line between farce and tragedy.  The film ends not with a laugh but a cruel emotional wallop, and De Sica's penchant for expressing human suffering, so visible in his neo-realist films, is keenly felt in the very last shot of the film.  It is a poignant coda, so subtle and yet so immensely powerful, which announces the arrival of a truly great filmmaker.

Film Synopsis

Returning to her childhood home, an old woman recalls happier times when she was a young boarder at a convent in Italy in the 1840s.  Caterinetta Bellelli was always something of a rebel, keeping pets that she shouldn't and reading books that were not suitable.  She makes an unlikely friend in Mariella Dominiani, a fellow boarder who also has a rebellious spirit.  One day, a wounded soldier in Garibaldi's army seeks shelter in the convent and Caterinetta and Mariella take turns to nurse him, taking care to keep this from the nuns.  Caterinetta is shocked to discover that the soldier is her friend's fiancé, Count Franco Amidei...