''Bread, Love and Dreams'' ( it, Pane, amore e fantasia) is a 1953 Italian romantic comedy film directed by
Luigi Comencini
Luigi Comencini (; 8 June 1916 – 6 April 2007) ''The Guardian'' was an Italian
. At the
4th Berlin International Film Festival
The 4th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 18 to 29 June 1954. This year's festival did not give any official jury prizes, instead awards were given by audience voting. This continued until the FIAPF granted Berlin "A-Status ...
it won the
Silver Bear
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fes ...
award.
Plot
The film is set in Sagliena, an imaginary small town in central Italy; Marshal Antonio Carotenuto, an elderly womanizer who will have to adapt to the monotonous and quiet life of the village, is transferred here immediately after the war. Supported by the maid Caramella, the marshal runs the local police station. Here he meets "Pizzicarella la Bersagliera", a young local girl secretly in love with the carabiniere Stelluti. At first the marshal tries to get engaged to the "Bersagliera", as Paoletta, the sacristan of the parish, is in love with the carabiniere Stelluti, but the latter is actually in love with the Bersagliera and wants her mother to know her. So, thanks to the intervention of Don Emidio, who informs the marshal, Stelluti and the Bersagliera get engaged while the marshal, on the evening of the feast of Sant'Antonio, gets engaged to the town's midwife: Annarella.
Cast
*
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
as Antonio Carotenuto
*
Gina Lollobrigida
Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist, and politician. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. As o ...
as Maria De Ritis
* Marisa Merlini as Annarella Mirziano
*
Virgilio Riento
Virgilio Riento (29 November 1889 – 7 September 1959) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 108 films between 1936 and 1959.
Selected filmography
* ''Sette giorni all'altro mondo'' (1936) - Man on train
* '' Il signor Max'' (1937) - ...
as Don Emidio
*
Tina Pica
Tina Pica (31 March 1884 – 15 August 1968) was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage. Her film debut came in 1935 with '' The Three-Cornered Hat''.
In the 1950s, she became a celebrity thanks to her role as Carame ...
Roberto Risso
Roberto Risso (22 November 1925 – 16 November 2010) was a Swiss-born Italian film actor.
Life and career
Born Pietro Roberto Strub in Geneva, Risso joined the cinema industry when he was still a university student of architecture, playing a ...
as Pietro Stelluti
*
Memmo Carotenuto
Memmo Carotenuto (23 August 1908 – 23 December 1980) was an Italian actor. He appeared in 125 films between 1941 and 1980.
Selected filmography
*'' The Wedding Trip'' (1969)
* ''Assassination in Rome'' (1965)
* '' Male Companion'' (1964 ...
as Sirio Baiocchi
*
Vittoria Crispo
Vittoria Crispo (1 May 1900 – 24 December 1973) was an Italian film and television actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the thea ...
as Maria Antonia De Ritis
*
Guglielmo Barnabò
Guglielmo Barnabò (11 May 1888 – 31 May 1954) was an Italian stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1926 and 1954.
Life and career
Born in Ancona, Barnabò made his stage debut in 1921 at the Greek Theatre of ...
as Don Concezio
Reception
''Pane, amore e fantasia'' is usually considered the most famous example of '' Pink neorealism''.
The film contains what many critics regard as Gina Lollobrigida's best and most naturalistic performance. The film's popularity resulted in two sequels, one with Lollobrigida: ''
Pane, amore e gelosia
''Bread, Love and Jealousy'' ( it, Pane, amore e gelosia), known as ''Frisky'' in the US, is a 1954 Italian romantic comedy film directed by Luigi Comencini. It is the second part of the Italian trilogy, preceded by ''Bread, Love and Dreams'' an ...
''(US title: ''Frisky'') and the open-ended ''Pane, amore e...'' (English title: '' Scandal in Sorrento'') starring Sophia Loren in the female lead role. De Sica also reprised his role in the Spanish-set '' Bread, Love and Andalusia'' (1958).
Popular Media
In
The Andy Griffith Show
''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.
The ...
, Season 5, Episode 17,
Barney Fife
Bernard "Barney" Fife is a fictional character in the American television program ''The Andy Griffith Show'', portrayed by comic actor Don Knotts. Barney Fife is a deputy sheriff in the slow-paced, sleepy southern community of Mayberry, North Car ...
sends a letter saying he watched this movie while on vacation in Raleigh, NC. However, he calls the movie “Bread, Love and Beans” in his letter to Andy.