Bread and Chocolate

Bread and Chocolate
(Pane e cioccolata)
Bread and Chocolate; (Pane e cioccolata)
	DVD cover
Directed by	Franco Brusati
Written by	Franco Brusati; Jaja Fiastri; Nino Manfredi
Produced by	; Turi Vasile
Starring	Nino Manfredi; Johnny Dorelli; Anna Karina
Cinematography	Luciano Tovoli
Edited by	Mario Morra
Music by
Distributed by	Cinéma International Corporation
Release dates	1974 (Italy, France); July 14, 1978 (USA)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Italy
Languages	Italian; German; English

Bread and Chocolate (Italian: Pane e cioccolata) is a 1974 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Franco Brusati. This film chronicles the misadventures of an Italian immigrant to Switzerland and is representative of the commedia all'italiana film genre.

Plot[]

Like many southern Europeans of the period (1960s to early 1970s), Nino Garofalo (Nino Manfredi) is a migrant "guest worker" from Italy, working as a waiter in Switzerland. He loses his work permit when he is caught urinating in public, so he begins to lead a clandestine life in Switzerland.

At first he is supported by Elena, a Greek woman and political refugee. Then he befriends an Italian industrialist, relocated to Switzerland because of financial problems. The industrialist takes him under his wing, only to commit suicide when he squanders his last savings.

Nino is constrained to find shelter with a group of clandestine Neapolitans living in a chicken coop, together with the same chickens they tend to in order to survive.

Charmed by the idyllic vision of a group of young blonde Swisses, having a bath in a river, he decides to dye his hair and pass himself off as a local. In a bar, when rooting for the Italian national football team during the broadcast of a match, he is found out after celebrating a goal scored by Fabio Capello.

He is arrested and brought at a station. He meets Elena again, who wants to give him a renewed permit but he refuses. He embarks on a train and finds himself in a cabin filled with returning Italian guest workers. Amid the songs of "sun" and "sea", he is seen having second thoughts.

He gets off at the first stop: better life as an illegal immigrant than a life of misery.

Cast[]

Nino Manfredi as Nino Garofalo
Johnny Dorelli as Italian Industrialist
Anna Karina as Elena
as Gianni
Ugo D'Alessio as Old Man
Tano Cimarosa as Giacomo
Gianfranco Barra as The Turk
as Police Inspector
Francesco D'Adda as Rudiger
Geoffrey Copleston as Boegli
as Grigory
as Renzo
Umberto Raho as Maitre
as The Blonde
as The Sportman

Awards[]

The film won several international awards including the Silver Bear at the 24th Berlin International Film Festival in 1974.^[2]
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1978

References[]

^ Canby, Vincent (July 14, 1978), "Movie Review — Pane e Cioccolata (1973)", The New York Times, retrieved December 24, 2009
^ "Berlinale 1974: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-07-04.

External links[]

Bread and Chocolate at IMDb
Bread and Chocolate at AllMovie

[1] Canby, Vincent (July 14, 1978), "Movie Review — Pane e Cioccolata (1973)", The New York Times, retrieved December 24, 2009

[berlinale-2] "Berlinale 1974: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-07-04.

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