Yes, Salvatore... Salvatore Di Vita.
What do you mean, you don't know him?
I'm his mother. I've been calling from Sicily...
all day long.
I see... he's not there.
Then, please, can you tell me...
656... 220... 56.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Mama, it's useless to call. He's busy.
He won't remember any more.
Come on, let it go.
He hasn't been here in 30 years.
You know how he is.
He'll remember. I'm sure he'll remember.
If he finds out later we didn't tell him,
he'll be angry.
I'd like to talk...
to Mr. Salvatore Di Vita. I'm his mother.
Salvatore...
What time is it?
Very late.
I'm sorry. I wasn't able to call you.
Go back to sleep.
Your mother called.
She thought I was someone else.
What did you tell her?
I played along. We had a long talk.
She said you haven't visited her in 30 years.
When she wants to see you, she has to come to Rome.
She called just to say that?
She said someone's died... someone named Alfredo.
The funeral is tomorrow.
Who is he? A relative?
No... go to sleep.
The boy will be the death of me. How can I say Mass?
Totò!
Better late than never.
Without the bell, I lose my place!
Always sleeping! What do you do at night? Eat?
Father, at my house, we don't even eat at noon.
The veterinarian says that's why I'm always so tired.
I know why you're tired. Don't think I don't!
Now run along home. I've got something to do.
- Can I come? - No, you can't.
- Yes, yes! - Totò, out!
- I want to! - No!
Alfredo!
- Yes? - You can start.
Here we go again.
The frame!
THE LOWER DEPTHS
Pepe, one day we'll have it all.
We'll go away together.
Live the easy life...
where no one knows us.
Forget it.
You don't love me any more.
One pair, two pairs!
100 lire! Real nylon!
You mustn't come here.
I told you and told you. It's like talking to a wall!
If the film catches fire, little as you are...
"I turn into a chunk of charcoal."
Like to mouth off, eh?
One day I'll cut it off.
Like that.
Can I have it?
Well, can I?
You're as deaf as a post! I have to splice it back...
before I return the film. What a pest you are!
Why didn't you splice these before you gave the films back?
Sometimes I can't find the right place, so...
they stay here. Anyway, they kiss too much.
Then can I have them.
No, now, look... come here.
Before I kick your fanny, I'll make you a deal.
All those are yours, a present.
Thanks.
One: Don't come here any more, two: They stay with me. Got it?
- All right. - Then we agree. Now, scram!
If they're mine, how come you get to keep them?
Don't come back, or I'll thrash you!
"Shoot first, think later."
"This is no job for weaklings!"
"You traitorous dog!"
"Hey, you dirty swine! Hands off that gold!"
"Blackhearted pig! Stay away from me...
or I'll smash your face in!"
If the war's over, why doesn't papa come back?
He'll come back, you'll see. One of these days.
I don't remember him. Where's Russia?
It takes years to get there...
and years to come back.
Go to bed. It's late.
You can hoodwink your mother, but not me!
Get your diploma...
and join the police! Lazybones!
Good-for-nothing! Get in there and study or you're dead!
Well? How much is 5 times 5?
30.
Silence! The fives table, dimwit!
1 times 5 is 5.
2 times 5 is 10
3 times 5 is 15
4 times 5 is 20.
5 times 5?
40.
Silence!
Boccia! 25!
Learn your tables, or you'll never get a job.
For the last time... what is 5 times 5?
Christmas!
I paid to get in! I'm seeing the movie!
Get down from there, you little devil!
Go back to your seat!
They're worse than rabbits! They're all over the place!
Little monsters!
I'm off to Oregon. Wait for me at my ranch.
Wait for a dead man?
A star-studded cast...
featuring John Wayne and Claire Trevor...
Hello, everyone!
- Can't I say hello? - Double feature today.
So? I'm here to sleep.
- What do you smoke? - Americans.
Cut the news, Alfredo!
ITALY WON'T FORGET: THE RESISTANCE RALLY.
The men and women who fought in secret...
brave guerrillas, reunited in Rome...
for the First Resistance Rally.
THE EARTH TREMBLES
- What does it say? - I'm illiterate.
- You, too? - Yes.
Italian is not the language spoken by the poor in Sicily.
Twelve hours of blood and sweat...
to bring home barely enough...
to keep from starving.
Yet their nets were full,
when they pulled them up.
20 years I've gone to movies, and I've never seen a kiss!
And when will we?
Kiss my ass!
- Don Vincenzo... - You and you, to work.
What about me?
Go get a job from Stalin.
His day will come, even here! You'll see!
I always get left out.
Good movie. The kid really acted well.
Too bad he was so unlucky.
What a jackass he was to buy that boat!
Idiot! You didn't get it at all.
Right, boys, you'll work from dawn to dusk.
And don't ask how much it pays.
I waited all day. Did you buy the milk?
- No. - The money?
Stolen.
You spent it on movies?
- Yes. - Movies, always movies!
- Signora Maria, wait! - Leave him alone!
Take it easy! And you, why do you tell lies?
You know you got in free. Tell your mother.
Maybe he lost the money inside.
- How much? - 50 lire.
What did you find tonight... under the seats?
A comb...
two show lifts...
- a can of tobacco... - And...
50 lire.
- See? - Thanks.
Thank you, Alfredo.
I understood right away.
The square is mine!
It's mine!
It's midnight!
Out! Shoo! I have to close the square!
The square is mine!
Hard on the feet, eh, Father?
Going, it's downhill, and all the Saints help out.
But coming back, the Saints just watch.
If that's God's will...
See you tonight.
- What's wrong? - My foot!
Your foot this time? It's always something.
What can we do?
Alfredo, did you know my father?
Of course, I knew him!
Tall, thin, jolly... with a nice mustache, like mine.
Always smiling. A lot like Clark Gable.
Now that I'm older and going to fifth grade...
I don't say I should come in the booth...
but can we at least... be friends?
"I choose my friends for looks,
my enemies for intelligence."
You're too clever to be my friend.
I always tell my children...
"Be careful how you choose your friends."
You haven't got any children.
When I do, I'll tell him.
Don't cry, it's all right.
The fire's out. It's over.
- I'm here. - What happened?
Monster! Your little sister...
could've burned to death
and it's all your fault!
I told you not to keep your film under the bed by the firepan!
Even the photographs burned!
The house nearly caught on fire!
You and your stupid movies!
Aren't you ashamed to be playing with a boy at your age?
Don't look at me! What did I do?
Who gave him the film?
Don't do it again! He goes crazy!
All I hear is movies! Movies, Alfredo!
Swear you won't let him in again. Swear it!
You have my word.
God grant me this:
Send your father home to whip you!
Papa isn't coming back, and I know why! He's dead!
That's not true!
He'll come back. You'll see!
They smoke like chimneys.
No, go buy a ticket!
What was that?
I'll make mincemeat out of you! You'll have to reckon with me!
Signora Anna!
Don't blame me.
Your wife told me to bring your lunch.
I told my mother you didn't give me the film.
It wasn't your fault. I thought it was a joke...
about film catching fire.
I just wanted to tell you. Now I'll go.
Totò... come here.
Come on... come sit down.
Now, listen.
I got into this business at the age of ten.
Back then, we didn't have fancy machines.
Movies were silent.
You turned the projector by hand, with a crank.
The whole livelong day!
And it was hard, that damn crank.
If you got tired and slowed down a bit...
like a shot... voom! Everything burned.
So why don't you teach me?
Now that there's no crank and it's so easy.
Because I don't want to.
It's no kind of job for you. You're like a slave...
and always alone.
You see a film 100 times. There's nothing else to do.
You talk to Tyrone Power and Greta Garbo like a looney bird.
You work like a mule. Even holidays: Easter, Christmas...
You only get Good Friday off.
And if they hadn't stuck Christ on a cross...
we'd work then, too.
So why don't you change jobs?
Because I'm a nitwit.
Who else around here could run a projector?
Nobody. It takes an imbecile like me.
And I never had any luck.
So, you want to be a stick-in-the-mud like me?
Attaboy, Totò!
I only tell you for your own good.
Cooped up in here, suffocating in the summer...
freezing in the winter. Breathing fumes...
and you earn chicken feed.
Don't you like anything about it?
Oh, it grows on you. Sometimes you listen...
and the house is full of people giggling and laughing,
then you're happy, too.
It makes you feel good to hear them.
Like you're the one who made them laugh...
who made them forget their troubles.
That part I like.
I might as well speak Greek! What are you up to?
You pretend to listen, then you clown around!
Your mother's right! You're a scatterbrain!
How'd that rascal do it?
He learned by watching.
I'm telling the manager not to let you in!
And I'll see Father Adelfio!
No more altar boy! Finished!
UP yours!
I got it! I won!
I won the football lottery!
Hey! Ciccio from Naples won the lottery!
The Neapolitan won the lottery!
It's always the Northerners who are lucky!
The square is mine!
Hold still! Horseflies bothering you?
You got a lice factory up here! Beat it!
Do want me to smack you? Get out of here!
A merchant... owns two stores.
In one, he sells fruit.
Be seated. Professor here are the men...
taking the exam for the grade school diploma.
Silence!
Rotten like stinker!
- Totò, help me. - Silence!
- I can't do this damn thing. - Silence!
Francesco Messana, you're under arrest.
Kiss my ass! Pencil-pusher!
Right here is where it can catch fire.
If it does, cut here and here
or the whole reel will burn. Got it?
Never! We'll never have that here!
Which side is the gelatin on?
It tastes good.
Always keep the shipping invoices for the films.
I will, Alfredo.
Don't ever forget.
This is for you. Today you load the reels yourself.
- It's so high! - Now you can run it alone.
Hold it!
- What a build! - My turn!
Say goodbye to Peppino. He's leaving for Germany.
Why won't you say goodbye?
My father says he's a Communist.
God keep you, mama.
Will he really find work in Germany?
Who knows. It's like playing the lottery. You live on hope.
Screw this country!
Go work in Germany, you and your Stalin!
Goodbye, mama!
Goodbye, Peppino! Come back soon!
599 you!
Lucky thing Germany is closer than Russia.
After six years, the return of spring fashion.
Fresh and breezy unlike the pompous styles of wartime.
I'll make mincemeat out of you!
"You'll have to reckon with me!"
Another sad page in the tragedy of...
our men in Russia.
The Defense Ministry has released a new list...
of Italian dead until now considered missing.
The names will be posted by local military authorities.
Families concerned will be notified.
However, we don't know where he's buried.
Here's the pension form. Sign it, please.
Out! Go home! We can't have another show!
It's late! Be reasonable! We can't show it again!
Some people sat through it twice!
We've been waiting for an hour!
Tomorrow we'll have another movie.
A western! I promise!
Go home to bed!
They'll wreck the Paradise! All hell will break loose!
Alfredo, let us in!
What can I do?
"A mob doesn't think.
It has no mind of it's own."
Spencer Tracy said that in "Fury".
Well, what do you say?
Shall we let the poor devils see their film?
Fantastic! But, how?
"If you have no faith in me,
have faith in what you see."
Now get your fanny off that stool.
Get ready...
Abracadabra...
And we pass through walls.
Go look out the window.
Alfredo, it's beautiful!
Over there! It's the movie!
Bravo, Alfredo!
Thank you, Alfredo!
What's going on?
It's a movie!
To hell with you!
There's no sound!
Shall we make them happy?
Want to go down?
Go on.
- Look. - Good Lord!
Nunzio... half-price.
You have to buy tickets, folks.
- Reduced rates. - Up yours! The square...
- belongs to everyone! - No! The square is mine!
Don't joke about that! It makes me mad!
Help! Help!
Poor Alfredo. What a shame.
All burned! It all burned down!
What do we do now? We have no more entertainment.
Where will we get the money to rebuild?
Take a look at Ciccio! So spiffy you'd hardly know him.
Who has that kind of money?
The new Cinema Paradise!
Come in, come in!
This theater is for you!
He's just a boy. What about the labor laws?
I got the license through my connections.
Don't ask me how their minds work.
Officially, I'm the projectionist,
but the money goes to Totò.
Stay on your toes, Totò. No sleeping.
Do what poor Alfredo taught you.
And God bless you.
Thank you, Father.
What is this, a funeral? Life goes on! Gaiety! Music!