Don Camillo and Peppone

“Ecco il paese, ecco il piccolo mondo di un Mondo Piccolo” (Here is the country, here is the little world of a Little World) – this opening line in the 1952 film The Little World of Don Camillo, is perfectly reflected in Thomas Schwob’s experiences during a visit to Brescello. Equipped with an M2, he spent eleven days in the small town on the plaines of the Po river in Italy, home to the well-known film characters, Don Camillo and Peppone.

“The Don Camillo café is busy – everyone talks to each other and you’re soon making connections. I had wondered what might remain here of the unusual flair surrounding the nineteen fifties Don Camillo film series, and I set out to explore the question, armed with a Leica M2 from that era. Quite spontaneously, Abdon Boni and Giulio Bersellini offered to meet me in the Piazza the next day and to slip into the roles of the main protagonists.

The picture shown is from a scene out of Don Camillo’s Last Round, where Don Camillo, the village priest, and Peppone, the mayor, try to carry out a cloak and dagger operation to make an American tank from the Second World War disappear. Peppone and his communist partisans had been keeping the vehicle hidden, to use in the great Proletariat Revolution. However, the mayor no longer feels comfortable with the illegal possession of the tank. Don Camillo craftily offers his arch-rival an exchange that they can both benefit from. With Don Camillo's help, Peppone can get rid of the vehicle; in exchange, the priest is to get the piece of land where the tank has been hidden, and that he's been needing for a long time. As is so often the case, and despite their enmity, the two manage to achieve much more together than each on his own – neither can manage without the other. Nowadays a copy of the tank stands in front of the Museo Peppone e Don Camillo. With a little chuckle, I noted that here, in this traditionally left-wing town, Peppone, as representative of the people, is named first.”