Four Steps in the Clouds (Quattro Passi Fre Le Nuvole)

“Though similar in theme (to Franciolini's Fari Bella Nebbia), Blasetti's famous Four Steps In The Clouds is completely different in its doggedly optimistic approach. Here poverty goes hand in hand with good humour. The banality of a life burdened with care, the petty worries of everyday life, the solidarity of the working people, cheerfulness in the face of hardship, a gift for escaping from drudgery into the world of dreams - the soul of Italy was omnipresent in this bitter-sweet comedy.

“The mere existence of this simple film amounted to a denunciation of the meretricious Fascist cinema, with its facility and braggadocio. ‘After being obliged for so long to watch himself parading up and down on the screen disguised as a soldier, the man in the street could at last recognize himself in the overworked employee who is the hero of the film.' And referring to the hilarious coach outing Georges Sadoul continues: ‘Everything in this charming film was falling into ruin, and this comedy thereby bore witness to the age when the cracks in the regime's grandiloquent facade had begun to foretell the imminent collapse of Fascism.'”

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