Camerieri

Last updated
Camerieri
Camerieri.jpg
Directed by Leone Pompucci
Written by Leone Pompucci, Filippo Pichi, Paolo Rossi
Produced by Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Mario Cecchi Gori
Starring Diego Abatantuono, Paolo Villaggio, Marco Messeri, Ciccio Ingrassia
CinematographyMassimo Pau
Edited byMauro Bonanni
Music byCarlo Di Blasi
Paolo Rossi
Release date
1995
Running time
96 min
Country Italy
LanguageItalian

Camerieri (Waiters) is a 1995 Italian comedy-drama film written and directed by Leone Pompucci. The film won two Silver Ribbons, for best screenplay and best supporting actress (to Regina Bianchi). [1]

Contents

Plot summary

In a lonely restaurant on the beach, 4 waiters and the cook / his aide from Philippine are left alone by their senior boss (Ciccio Ingrassia) who goes to the hospital for a sudden illness, on the last day before selling the place to dysfunctional family of a rich furniture factory owner. The new management is, still undecided on whether to keep the place as it is, or convert the location into further expansion of his main business, firing everybody. The fate of the staff depends on this decision, as they are all barely getting by with this job, from a marginalized state in society. They suffer from gambling addiction, mental problems, immigration issues or inexperience. The new owner Salvatore Azzaro, an old Roman hick, and his has decided to put them to a test by celebrating there a wedding anniversary.

During the long lunch, customers and waiters show all their character flaws and the situation is repeatedly saved from the brink of collapse. The cook has a quarrel with the old chief waiter and suddenly refuses to help. His foreign aide drinks too much, and damages the cake on the way back from the pastry shop. One of the waiters is repeatedly humiliated for his aborted career as a professional football player, and constantly strives to get money through new loans and even petty thief, in order to feed his gambling addiction and keep a loan shark at bay. The head waiter gets fired, after boasting his long career and experience in the service of many celebrities, but also getting exposed for the loss own restaurant in a card game, his estranged son and mentally ill wife. Another barely literate and slightly retarded / homeless waiter is recognized as a previously successful but failed accordion player. The young and inexperienced nephew of the head waiter struggles to cope with his first job. The customers as well show all their vices, contradictions and moral corruption. The new owner has invited his mistress and betrays his wife even during the celebration, and causes her breakdown in tears in front of all their friends and relatives. His younger son insults and mocks the waiters in various ways, tantalizes them about remaining employed, but also ends up humiliated in front his friends during a bet.

At the end of the day, when all appears lost and the whole staff faces termination, the sudden chance for redemption comes in the form of a joint Totocalcio win by all waiters. Unexpectedly they decide to use part of it to buy the restaurant themselves. Only the younger one however appears to also use the occasion in order to start a new life in a different career as international salesman, while the movie ends hinting at all the others still persisting in their own ways.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<i>Needful Things</i> Novel by Stephen King

Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

<i>Love em and Weep</i> 1927 film

Love 'em and Weep is a 1927 American silent comedy short film starring Mae Busch, Stan Laurel and James Finlayson.

<i>Dough and Dynamite</i> 1914 film by Charlie Chaplin

Dough and Dynamite is a 1914 American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios starring Charlie Chaplin.

<i>Dealers Choice</i> (play)

Dealer's Choice is a play by Patrick Marber first performed at the Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe) in London in February 1995 where it won both the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild Award for Best West End Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ciccio Ingrassia</span> Italian comedian (1922–2003)

Francesco Ingrassia was an Italian actor, comedian and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waiter Rant</span>

Waiter Rant is a weblog written by ex-waiter Steve Dublanica. In roughly bi-weekly installments, Dublanica wrote vignettes about the lives of wait staff and customers. Dublanica started the blog in 2004 and originally wrote anonymously as "The Waiter."

<i>The Last Judgment</i> (1961 film) 1961 Italian film

The Last Judgment is a 1961 commedia all'italiana film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It was coproduced with France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Madonia</span>

Francesco Madonia was the Mafia boss of the San Lorenzo-Pallavicino area in Palermo. In 1978 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

<i>The Slammin Salmon</i> 2009 American film

The Slammin' Salmon is a 2009 American comedy film by Broken Lizard. It is about the owner of a restaurant who holds a contest to see which one of his waiters can earn the most money in a single night. The winner receives $10,000, and the loser receives a "beat down" by the owner, Cleon Salmon, a former heavyweight boxer. Kevin Heffernan directed the film, his first time for a Broken Lizard film.

<i>Kaos</i> (film) 1984 Italian drama film

Kaos is a 1984 Italian drama film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani based on short stories by Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936). The film's title is after Pirandello's explanation of the local name Càvusu of the woods near his birthplace in the neighborhood of Girgenti (Agrigento), on the southern coast of Sicily, as deriving from the ancient Greek word kaos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luciano Catenacci</span> Italian actor and production manager

Luciano Catenacci was an Italian actor and production manager who worked on mainly Italian produced films during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

<i>Il minestrone</i> 1981 film

Il minestrone is a 1981 Italian comedy film directed by Sergio Citti. It was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.

<i>Caprice Italian Style</i> 1967 film

Caprice Italian Style is a 1968 Italian comedy film directed by six different directors, including Mario Monicelli and Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film starred both Totò and the comedy team of Franco and Ciccio.

<i>Mord ist mein Geschäft, Liebling</i> 2009 German film

Mord ist mein Geschäft, Liebling is a German comedy directed by Sebastian Niemann.

<i>Farfallon</i> 1974 film

Farfallon is a 1974 Italian comedy film directed by Riccardo Pazzaglia. It is a parody of Papillon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fanfulla</span> Italian actor

Luigi Visconti, better known by his stage name Fanfulla, was an Italian actor and comedian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nino Terzo</span> Italian actor

Nino Terzo was an Italian actor.

<i>The Moralist</i> 1959 film

The Moralist is a 1959 Italian comedy film directed by Giorgio Bianchi. Starring Alberto Sordi and Vittorio de Sica, it satirises both the upholders of traditional sexual morality and the exploiters selling sex in a willing market.

Alfredo Rizzo was an Italian actor, screenwriter and director.

<i>Carcerato</i> (1981 film) 1981 film

Carcerato is a 1981 Italian melodrama film written and directed by Alfonso Brescia and starring Mario Merola.

References

  1. Enrico Lancia (1998). I premi del cinema. Gremese Editore, 1998. ISBN   8877422211.