Holy Tongue

Two friends in Padua are doing badly. One is divorced and does not know what to do with himself, the other is in debt. One day something extraordinarily valuable comes into their hands: the relic of the tongue of Saint Anthony, kept in the basilica, the holiest thing in the city, has been stolen, and they have it. They do not know what to do; selling it is impossible and giving it back is dangerous. Carlo Mazzacurati's film takes place in the industrial towns of northern Italy and gets its comedy from there: a holy relic and two men out of work, inside the same frame. Antonio Albanese and Fabrizio Bentivoglio play the two friends. The telling neither mocks religion nor turns pious; what it really looks at is how much people need a miracle in a region where nobody's business is working. The scale is small and the film never raises its voice; it comes from the quiet wing of Italian comedy.