Masterpiece in the history of cinema, the film is an ironic and poignant portrait of life in the trenches during the First World War. Starring Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca as soldiers stripped of rhetoric, coward-heroes. It attracted a lot of controversy over its content and hard-hitting viewpoint. Thousands of real soldiers were provided by the Ministry of Defence for the crowd scenes. Among the locations, all in the province of Udine: Sella Sant’Agnese (where a billboard near the church shows some scenes of the film), Nespoledo di Lestizza, Palmanova and Venzone, known today for its pumpkin festival. Each year in the fourth weekend in October, the Carnian town is inundated by pumpkins and strange characters (the mayor or the members of the Sacred Confraternity of the Pumpkin) who recount the ancient chronicles of these mountains in a rather boisterous way. The film won prestigious awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
Year
1959
Direction
Mario Monicelli
Screenplay
Angenore Incrocci, Mario Monicelli, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vicenzoni
Actors
Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano, Folco Lulli, Bernard Blier, Romolo Valli, Tiberio Murgia, Nicola Arigliano, Mario Valdemarin, Livio Lorenzon, Tiberio Mitri, Ferruccio Amendola, Elsa Vazzoler, Gerard Herter, Geronimo Meynier
