In nome del popolo sovrano

1849. The Pope has fled Rome and a Roman Republic has been declared in the city. Ciceruacchio, a man of the people, is one of its most visible figures. But France and Austria move to bring the Pope back and Rome is besieged. Those defending the republic are defending a life of a few months. Luigi Magni's film is the last of the pictures he made over the years about Rome and the papacy. The telling proceeds from the view of people in the street rather than of great men; neither the papacy nor the republicans are exempt from criticism. Nino Manfredi and Alberto Sordi are in the cast. It won at the David di Donatello awards that year. It takes up one of the least told chapters of Italian unification.