Bread and Chocolate (1974)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Then it was Italians for the Swiss. Recent it was Romanians for the Italians. And now the Chinese for the Romanians. This movie talks about the courage and the naivety of becoming a foreigner in the endless search for "the better". In the end...it remains a search and that is because we are not moving from a country to another inside ourselves. We are keeping the same place there: the place called "us- who we really are". The search remains without meaning, without result if we can't understand the importance of looking at us and understand the cultural and spiritual significance of our core. The story: An Italian becomes an immigrant in Sweetland, in search for what his country can't give to him and his family; financial stability. Here he has to face new and continuous challenges, even greater than the ones he had to face in his country and son... the hero finds himself fighting with destiny itself who seem to have made a job out of the continuous effort of putting Nino down and tryings to show him who he is and that he must not forget what the reason is for his presence in the semi-adoptive country. A drama full of comic and hilarious situations where the director really knows what is the difference between comic and drama and how to put them next to each other without failing to send the message. But more important, the comic is on the highest standard of intelligence; simple and efficient as you expect from a movie that has cinematic power inside as well as an important theme to explore and expose: immigration. The acting is incredible and all the actors manage to deliver it to the highest expectations. Nino Manfredi is exceptional and extremely well distributed in this role created with the sensibility for abstract. A movie to remain in history before and after all the countries will merge into one.

A Film Review of Pane e Cioccolata Written By Jeremy LawrenceThe film "Pane e Cioccolata", also known as bread and chocolate (1973) directed by Franco Brusati is one of the remarkable films that installs the perception of both lifter and of sorrow. Brusati takes the audience through the life of an illiterate southern Italian immigrant as he tries to find refuge in the economic system of Switzerland in order to earn enough money to support him self and that of his so called families back home in Italia. As he progresses through the story unusual problems arise that involve differences in culture as well as a specific stereotype problems created by the society and even by himself. Threw out the film Nino (Nino Manfredi) is thrown into situations that arise because of his lack of a formal education and of his difference in cultural practices. For instance in a spectacular scene ware Nino is confronted by a Swiss police inspector (Giorgio Cerioni) who presents Nino with a photograph of himself urinating in public, his cultural differences are evident. But at first the inspector tells Nino that he has committed an obscene act in public. Nino is appalled by the accusation, but when the inspector tells him that the act was of him taking a pepe in public Nino is Lost and can not see why the act was so offensive that he should be fired for the act alone. What is missing is that in Nino's culture of uneducated southern Italians (hicks) the act is a trivial one and an obscene act is much more sever, infect Neno rebuttals that he has not done an obscene act in private for some time. This and a plethora go to show the distance that Nino was from the members of his surrounding communities. Finally after trying to assimilate into the Swiss culture Nino gives up and decides to change his physical appearance to better resemble the traditional blond hair. When he travels into a pup for a drink he does not know how to answer the water. When a soccer game between the Italian team and the Swedish team appears on the television Nino tries to hide his indignation of the Swiss towards himself and root for the Swiss team. To all that are in the pup the fact that Nino is not a Native German speaker is in explicitly evident. He is ultimately rejected from the society and is imprisoned ware when he is released his blond hair was cut off. This further goes to illustrate his lack of acceptance from the members of the Swedish society. But when her tries to return to Italy, he abandons the train and returns to Switzerland. Throughout his struggle Nino is constantly rejected and a pone boarding the train that will take him back to Italy he is reminded of the stereotypical cultural influence of the fellow train occupancy as they brake out into song. This further goes to demonstrate his unwillingness to return to the foreboding family back home and reaffirms his belief that wail he may not be educated he is at least trying to make ends meet. But one must wonder if he were smarter why did he not go to the Italian speaking part of Switzerland or after a few years why he could not speak more German than the hand full of words he admitted to know. But all in all the stories goes to show that racism and prodigies are not always the solution and that wail one may be illiterate that the circumstances that perspired against that person may or may not lead that individual full circle. This film has much more to say and I, the writer do not have the space to elaborate. For example there is the social implications of the forged friendship of the Italian Industrialist and Nino. But for all purposes this film encourages those who take the time to watch the film to engulfed ourselves in Nino's struggles and to relate to Nino's desperation and a lack of social mannerism and lack of cultural adaptability.

I was four when Bread and Chocolate played at a small theater in San Francisco. My mother decided to take me(no babysitter). The story I've heard many, many times was that I was upset with her that she wouldn't (although now I realize it was more that she couldn't) read the subtitles to me. I eventually became frustrated with her and moved two isles over. My mom has said that she would turn to watch me and although I couldn't truly read the subtitle or comprehend the language, I laughed continually throughout the movie. She said I truly enjoyed Bread and Chocolate. Many years later I rented the movie and it's amazing. It's exactly as I remembered it. Truly a gem of a movie, though the second time around I was able to fully grasp the meaning of this movie. It's universal and it's timeless. I now own this on DVD and have enjoyed sharing it with my family and friends. Certainly a must see movie!

Great adult comedy, a modern day Chaplin-like "little tramp" story.