State buoni se potete

Rome in the sixteenth century. Filippo Neri gathers the children living on the street. He brings them into the church and does not preach at them; he gets them playing, singing, laughing. The clergy around him are uncomfortable with it, find it unserious, and try to stop him. Filippo does not give way. In the same years the Inquisition is at work in Rome and the church is hardening. What Filippo does stands directly against that hardening, which makes him both loved and regarded with suspicion. Luigi Magni directs the Italian film; two and a half hours, with Johnny Dorelli as Filippo. Angelo Branduardi wrote the music and appears in the film himself, and won a David di Donatello for the score. The song that came out of it, Vanità di Vanità, became known in Italy quite apart from the film.