| We All Loved Each Other So Much | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Italian | C'eravamo tanto amati |
| Directed by | Ettore Scola |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Claudio Cirillo |
| Edited by | Raimondo Crociani |
| Music by | Armando Trovajoli |
Production company | Deantir |
| Distributed by | Delta |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Box office | $5.2 million (Italy)[1] |
We All Loved Each Other So Much (Italian:C'eravamo tanto amati) is a 1974 Italiancomedy-drama film directed byEttore Scola, who co-wrote the screenplay with screenwriting duoAge & Scarpelli. It starsNino Manfredi,Vittorio Gassman,Stefania Sandrelli,Stefano Satta Flores,Giovanna Ralli andAldo Fabrizi. Widely considered one of the best films by Scola, and a notable example ofcommedia all'italiana, it was dedicated to Italian directorVittorio De Sica. In 2008, the film was included on theItalian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[2]
Gianni, Antonio and Nicola areResistance fighters duringWorld War II. After the war, Antonio becomes a nurse inRome and falls in love with a girl named Luciana. Gianni becomes an assistant in a law firm, the head of which, La Rosa, is running as a deputy candidate for theSocialist Party. Nicola becomes a high school teacher, gets married, and has a child, Tommasino.
Three years after the war, Antonio, Luciana, and Gianni are reminiscing in a restaurant. Unbeknownst to Antonio, Luciana and Gianni fall in love with each other. When they later admit their affair to Antonio, he attacks Gianni. Meanwhile, Nicola loses his job after a violent argument with his superior about the filmBicycle Thieves. Leaving his wife and son, Nicola moves to Rome.
Later, Gianni and Luciana live happily together. Gianni becomes a lawyer and is asked to defend a corrupt real estate constructor, which he refuses, lying about the refusal being due to La Rosa's political and financial misconducts. Elide, the client's daughter, falls in love with Gianni. Gianni is implied to accept a bribe from the client. Meanwhile, Nicola tries to work as a movie critic and start a film magazine, but fails.
Years later, Antonio, Nicola, and Luciana get drunk together and Antonio argues with Luciana, who believes she can become an actress. Some time later, Gianni receives a letter saying that she has tried to commit suicide. He finds her at a hotel and, when she asks him if Antonio knows about "them," Nicola slaps her. She apologizes to Antonio, who starts a fight with Nicola. When Luciana recovers, they all leave the hotel and go their separate ways. Gianni secretly watches this, unable to find the courage to approach them.
Years pass, Gianni has married Elide and is now a rich lawyer with two children. One night they see Nicola on TV in a quiz show aboutItalian cinema. He answers all the questions right and wins over 1,000,000 lire and the right to return the following week for more. He calls his wife, with whom he is reconciled. At the next show, Nicola bets his winnings double or nothing. When asked a question aboutBicycle Thieves, he mistakingly gives a long-winded answer about an actor instead of the actor's character, losing all his winnings.
Later, in 1959, Antonio is at theTrevi Fountain during the shooting ofLa Dolce Vita. There he sees an actress, Luciana, who has become an alcoholic. Antonio tries to ask Luciana out when her impresario shows up and says that she will be busy. Antonio starts a fight and she asks not to see him again.
A decade later, Gianni has a mansion in the countryside and avoids Elide. After quarreling with his father-in-law over a real estate project, his father-in-law relinquishes his power over the business to Gianni. Elide confesses to have met another man, but he thinks she is lying to upset him. Distraught, she commits suicide.
Antonio has a new wife. The couple meet Luciana, who works as an usher and lives alone with her young son. Meanwhile, at a festival,Vittorio De Sica tells an anecdote proving that Nicola's answer on the quiz show was correct. Later, Antonio is driving to Rome when he sees Gianni, who pretends to be broke. They agree to meet with Nicola, who is now a stringer for a newspaper. They meet in the usual restaurant and Gianni declares that they are a generation who did nothing to fulfill the hopes they had for a better world. They blame each other's political views and drunkenly fight again. When they stop, Nicola breaks into tears of joy, revealing that Tommasino is getting married.
They all visit Antonio's wife, Luciana, and Gianni tells her that he always remained in love with her, but Luciana says that she did not think of him one bit. After Gianni leaves, Nicola finds he mistakenly left his driver's license. The next morning, they visit Gianni to return it and realize that he lied about being broke. They leave the license at the door and start arguing again.
After four months of release it had grossed $5.2 million in Italy, the highest-grossing Italian film for the period September 1974 to April 1975.[1]
The film won aCésar Award for Best Foreign Film in 1977. It also won twoSilver Ribbons (Italian cinema critics award, for Fabrizi and Ralli) and the Golden Prize in the9th Moscow International Film Festival in 1975.[3]
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