''Bread and Chocolate'' ( it, Pane e cioccolata) is a 1974 Italian comedy-drama film directed by

Franco Brusati Franco Brusati (4 August 1922 in Milan – 28 February 1993 in Rome) was an Italian screenwriter and Film director, director. Biography He directed the internationally commended film hit ''Bread and Chocolate'', one of the finest examples o ...

. This film chronicles the misadventures of an Italian immigrant to Switzerland and is representative of the ''

commedia all'italiana Commedia all'italiana (, pl. Commedie all'italiana, "Comedy in the Italian way") or Italian-style comedy is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mari ...

'' film genre.

Plot

Like many southern Europeans of the period (1960s to early 1970s), Nino Garofalo (

Nino Manfredi Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi (22 March 1921 – 4 June 2004) was an Italian actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality and television presenter. He was one of the most prominent Italian a ...

) is a migrant "

guest worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

" from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, working as a waiter in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. 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 Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

woman and

political refugee The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another entit ...

. Then he is befriended by an Italian industrialist, relocated to Switzerland because of financial problems. The industrialist takes him under his wing and invests his savings for him, but kills himself after his financial scheme collapses, without having told Nino where he deposited his 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 openly rooting for the

Italian national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body ...

during the broadcast of a match, he is found out as a migrant Italian worker, after celebrating a goal scored by

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which ...

. He is arrested and brought to a police 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

as Nino Garofalo *

Johnny Dorelli Johnny Dorelli (real name Giorgio Guidi; born 20 February 1937) is an Italian actor, singer and television host. Early life Dorelli was born in Meda, Italy. In 1946 he moved to New York City with his family, where his father, Nino D'Aurelio ...

as Italian Industrialist *

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

as Elena * Paolo Turco as Gianni *

Ugo D'Alessio Ugo D'Alessio (1909–1979) was an Italian film actor.Goble p.113 Selected filmography * '' Malaspina'' (1947) - Nicola * '' Madunnella'' (1948) - Il ragionere, padre di Maria * '' Assunta Spina'' (1948) - Epanimonda Pesce * '' Red Moon'' (1951 ...

as Old Man *

Tano Cimarosa Tano Cimarosa, real name Gaetano Cisco, (1 January 1922 – 24 May 2008) was an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director. He participated in more than fifty movies. He played the "Blacksmith" in the Oscar-winning film ''Cinema Paradiso'' fr ...

as Giacomo *

Gianfranco Barra Gianfranco Barra (born 5 April 1940) is an Italian film, television and stage actor. He has appeared in more than 80 films. Born in Rome, Barra studied at the Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts in his hometown. First active on stage, he m ...

as The Turk *

Giorgio Cerioni Giorgio may refer to: * Castel Giorgio, ''comune'' in Umbria, Italy * Giorgio (name), an Italian given name and surname * Giorgio Moroder, or Giorgio, Italian record producer ** ''Giorgio'' (album), an album by Giorgio Moroder * "Giorgio" (song), ...

as Police Inspector *

Francesco D'Adda Francesco D'Adda (born 15 October 1943) is an Italian actor. He appeared in more than seventy films since 1970. Selected filmography References External links * 1943 births Living people Italian male film actors {{Italy-film ...

as Rudiger *

Geoffrey Copleston Gerald Geoffrey Copleston (18 March 1921 – 1999) was an English actor, voice actor, and translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The Englis ...

as Boegli * Federico Scrobogna as Grigory * Max Delys as Renzo *

Umberto Raho Umberto Raho (4 June 1922 – 9 January 2016) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. Life and career Born in Bari, the son of an Italian father and a Bulgarian mother, Raho graduated in philosophy and then, immediately after the war, ...

as Maitre * Nelide Giammarco as The Blonde *

Manfred Freyberger ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction. Byr ...

as The Sportman

Reception

In the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'', film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

wrote:

''Bread and Chocolate'' is a sneaky comedy that winds up being serious about its subject. It reminds us of some of
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
's later features, and maybe it's no coincidence that the lead character looks like Chaplin. He's a Southern Italian waiter named Nino (Nino Manfredi), who goes to Switzerland to tryout for a restaurant job and finds himself caught in a net of discrimination... The only sympathy he gets comes from a neighbor (Anna Karina), a Greek immigrant who's concealing her child from the immigration authorities. Despondent, he goes into the country to find work on a chicken farm, and the film finds its best and most unforgettable image: a chicken-coop filled with immigrant laborers, who peer with admiration and envy through chicken wire at a crowd of Swiss kids frolicking in a pool. It's here that we most completely feel the movie's underlying tension and seriousness. Other films have considered the dilemma of immigrant workers in Europe ... but not until this film by Franco Brusati has the subject been approached as a comedy.

Awards

* The film won several international awards including 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 festi ...

at the

24th Berlin International Film Festival The 24th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 21 June – 2 July 1974. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Canadian film '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' directed by Ted Kotcheff. Jury The following people were announc ...

in 1974. *

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the annual awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle. Winners 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple winners ...

1978

References

External links

* * {{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1974 films 1974 comedy-drama films Commedia all'italiana 1970s English-language films Films directed by Franco Brusati 1970s German-language films 1970s Italian-language films Films set in Switzerland Films about immigration Italian comedy-drama films 1974 multilingual films Italian multilingual films 1970s Italian films