Utterly brilliant black comedy about an Italian village dominated by selfish and corrupt people. The simple and humble photographer Celestino is unhappy about this until he runs into an old man who is the very image of Saint Andrew, the town's patron. The old man tells him the reason for all the unhappiness is that evil people are allowed to live, thus good people must kill them!
Using magic powers, the old man tells Celestino that his camera now has lethal powers! If he photographs a photograph of someone, that person will die. A perfectly loathsome official pursuing a romantic couple appears on the scene; when Celestino points his camera at a photograph showing the official in a stiff-armed salute, the official freezes dead in this posture.
The greedy councilmen are arguing over a windfall subsidy the government has given the town, and want to use it for everything but the needy. Celestino "photographs" a few of them, but a problem arises: the poor who have benefited by his lethal actions become as greedy and selfish as those who once tormented them. It looks as if our hero will have to kill EVERYBODY in order to purify the world! Celestino is of course too kind a guy to do that, so he then tries to set matters right.
People have certain expectations of Rossellini, but black comedy and slapstick farce are not among them. Give the guy a chance, he made great films in several genres, not just neorealism. Luis Bunuel (whose ironic attitude is similar to what we see here) suffered from the same typecasting: he made some brilliant dramas, but people only want to see his late surrealist works. The neorealists treated the camera as an instrument of social struggle, so it is possible to see this film as an allegory.
This is in the tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, it will help if you have some familiarity with slapstick.
Using magic powers, the old man tells Celestino that his camera now has lethal powers! If he photographs a photograph of someone, that person will die. A perfectly loathsome official pursuing a romantic couple appears on the scene; when Celestino points his camera at a photograph showing the official in a stiff-armed salute, the official freezes dead in this posture.
The greedy councilmen are arguing over a windfall subsidy the government has given the town, and want to use it for everything but the needy. Celestino "photographs" a few of them, but a problem arises: the poor who have benefited by his lethal actions become as greedy and selfish as those who once tormented them. It looks as if our hero will have to kill EVERYBODY in order to purify the world! Celestino is of course too kind a guy to do that, so he then tries to set matters right.
People have certain expectations of Rossellini, but black comedy and slapstick farce are not among them. Give the guy a chance, he made great films in several genres, not just neorealism. Luis Bunuel (whose ironic attitude is similar to what we see here) suffered from the same typecasting: he made some brilliant dramas, but people only want to see his late surrealist works. The neorealists treated the camera as an instrument of social struggle, so it is possible to see this film as an allegory.
This is in the tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, it will help if you have some familiarity with slapstick.