Sandro Somarè

À la mairie d’une petite ville de province dans le nord de l’Italie, le plus humble employé est Carmine, que tous ses collègues humilient parce qu’il est pauvre et possède un manteau troué. Il apprend par hasard l’accord financier de certains entrepreneurs avec le secrétaire de mairie. Ce dernier, croyant Carmine capable de le dénoncer au maire, lui fait donner une prime. Carmine, fou de joie, commande un manteau neuf, garni de fourrure…

Donne e soldati was an example of a ‘decentralised’ production, far from Rome, something that for the most part Italian cinema didn’t fully succeed in achieving until the 1990s. . In many ways the film, which is both Picaresque and anti-heroic, was too far ahead of its time, and it is often considered the precursor to Monicelli’s L’armata brancaleone. This time out, Ferreri takes the reins as producer of the ill-fated undertaking (the two directors will never make another film); however, Donne e soldati, apart from marking Ferreri’s estrangement from Italian cinema for a number of years, today appears to display earthy and carnivalesque elements that will subsequently influence certain aspects of the Milanese director’s vision.