The Teacher from Vigevano

Mombelli teaches primary school in Vigevano. The pay is poor, but he likes the work and has no complaint about his life. His wife Ada sees it differently: everyone in town is getting rich making shoes while they sit on a teacher's salary. She insists, he resigns, and he puts their savings into a small shoe workshop. There really was a boom like that in Vigevano in those years. But a boom does not make everyone rich, and Mombelli will want his classroom back. Elio Petri directs the Italian film; a hundred and nine minutes, adapted from Lucio Mastronardi's novel, with Alberto Sordi as Mombelli and Claire Bloom as Ada. Vigevano really did grow on the shoe industry, and the film looks at what that growth did to people.