Original subtitles

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

[BURST OF MACHINE GUN IN THE DISTANCE]

(Leo) - Hemostatic, hemostatic. Swab, move!

Can't you see where the vase is'?

How is it possible?

We have a rather significant adhesion block .

It is strange, the x-ray examination all seems normal.

Retractor. Scalpel.

(assistant) - Light, light! - Who is that idiot who said "Duce"?

(assistant) - I said "light".

(Leo) - Subsidiary light. - Gentlemen.

[BURST OF MACHINE GUN IN THE DISTANCE]

(Leo) - Apple slam that lamp in the face ?

- Excuse me, Colonel, if you touch the lamp you lose sterility.

- Do your own thing.

Lieutenant Apicella, you try to keep the patient asleep

and stay awake. - Yes, sir.

(assistant) - The generator has moved away. - Emergency. Emergency!

In war everything happens.

(soldier) - Candles. So if he dies we are ready for the funeral ceremony.

[BURST OF MACHINE GUN IN THE DISTANCE]

(Leo) - Anatomical.

But what is she blind?

Yes. He is quite blind.

- I'll have it disinfected, I'll boil it, Colonel.

(Leo) - Boil your balls. Alcohol.

[BURST OF MACHINE GUN IN THE DISTANCE]

(Leo) - It's raining.

[VERSES OF MAN]

- These curtains are crap.

What are we waiting for to move the patient?

Do we want to see him drowned? - Gentlemen.

Ready to move? Via drip.

(assistant) - Drip off.

(assistant) - raise.

To shift. Alt. Depose.

- Perfectly healthy appendix.

We do the accounts later.

Sew up.

We finished. - Gentlemen.

Alt! Exercise finished. That's enough.

Turn off the recorder.

Turn off the water.

It's all OK.

- This is just a very pale example of what war surgery is,

the real one, on the line of fire.

I remember once during the battle we were left without anesthetic.

We had to work urgent cases. Well, we have drunk the wounded with grappa

and we stunned them with gasoline-soaked wicks.

Who is the genius who diagnosed non-existent appendicitis?

- Lo, Colonel. It was me. - Congratulations.

Ten arrests and a month's leave for the patient as a necessary compensation.

- Pass me the soap. - Here.

(Sister Celeste) - Guess who I dreamed of last night. - Who dreamed, Sister Celeste?

- Lieutenant Guidotti. (in veneto) He was beautiful as an angel.

- Sister Celé, who works miracles when she sleeps?

- I'm out of picture. Sister Celeste must marry Lieutenant Colò, right sister?

- Yes, when I have obtained a divorce from Our Lord.

- Anyway, you know she'd marry a bad surgeon.

He confuses the hernia with the appendix. - I have already removed the appendix.

- Oh yes? - Yes. - Then she already showed herself naked in front of a man.

She even let herself be touched.

(embarrassed nun) - Necessity ...

- Excuse me, colonel. Will you give me an autograph? - Of course.

Ah ... My poetry book. But how did he ...

Lieutenant Colò, you and a nice screen, but remember that the punishment remains.

[SOSPIRO DI COLÒ] - Anyway, I'll gladly sign it for you.

Curious. Do you know when I wrote this poem? Exactly twenty years ago.

Sins of youth.

I don't understand, though. The latest edition is out of print. Where did you find it?

- To the guardhouse. There were eight copies. - Yes, it's true. I had brought them.

Yeah, but they were destined for the intellectual property of the General Staff.

How did he permit himself?

Ten days of arrests plus five for theft of cultural products.

(Sister Celeste) - Our colonel is a tough soldier, but inside he is a tender poet.

(Leo) - Don't take the piss out of me, sister. Pardon.

- While there was a colonel, he could even sign himself "general".

- But she enjoys being punished. Other five days of arrest. [PHONE RINGS]

For violation of military secrecy. (Sister Celeste) - Naples Military Hospital.

Operating rooms. - This is how it works, take it easy.

- General Pasta is there for you, Colonel. - Hello general.

I was waiting for your call.

I already know, I already know. No, not by phone.

I hate the phone. I want to hear it from your speakerphone.

Let me just say thank you for now .

No, no. Don't evade, dear friend. Accept my obligation instead

on the brightest day of my life. Yes Yes i know. AI shooting range.

I'll join you right away. Hello.

- Don't forget that Lieutenant Sarso has to operate at three o'clock.

- The hemorrhoids will wait. We operate tomorrow.

- We want to be the first to celebrate your promotion.

- What is this news bleeding?

Anyway, if you are not busy, tonight you are guests for dinner with me.

(soldier) - Thank you, colonel. - You too, Lieutenant Colò.

(Colò) - Thank you, colonel.

- "I call you sea. I believe you river and love I cry only in the night."

- Azz, we have another soldier poet.

(Leo) - Bravo. Go.

Go and finish what you started doing in the sink.

- And do I consider myself under arrest for three days?

(Leo) - Ready, give me Florence 24126. It's urgent.

Also, but first clean up the gonococci

which he deposited on the majolica with abundant permanganate. Go.

[PHONE RINGS ] Gentlemen.

(Leo) - Yes, this is Colonel Leone. And General Pigna at home?

No? Well. Then hand me the Countess his wife.

Yup.

(loving) Lola, finally. Venus you are not alone,

but Sibyl from the gods inspired in the future foretelling.

Well, poets are born. Sooner or later one becomes general.

How? Did you know?

Sibilla...

It is precisely because of our elective affinity

that I wanted to share my promotion with you.

Yup.

Come?

(persuasive) Were you in déshabillé?

No, don't worry, I'm not looking at you. How could I?

Even if I could, I wouldn't dare.

Then allow me to undress myself, at least by remote selection.

(screaming) Pig!

But what is it, a toilet? Ten days of rigor!

Forgive, Donna Lola, but often the Army presents the most trivial aspects

of virile humanity.

(soldier) - Watch out!

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(flower girl) - To your orders. - Can flowers be sent urgently to Florence?

- Gentlemen. - Rose. - Red?

- No. Blank. Those, all of them.

- Blessed is he who receives. Tell me, Colonel, who are they going to? - Write.

Donna Lola Pigna, Borgo a Buggiano, Florence.

- Text?

- Among the roses, my lioness,

there's a roar that's promise.

- Leone. - "Leone."

- Urgent forwarding, please. - Lightning, Colonel.

They are 20,000 lire.

- But...

[SHOOT] - Didn't they promote me?

But then you could have told me on the phone that they had put it in my ass, right?

- My son, you said you wanted to hear it from my hands-free voice

and now with my loud voice I tell you that I did the somersaults, but they screwed you.

You're staying colonel, do you understand? - Yes, but I say ... a pretext,

an excuse, they must have found it to fuck me. No? [SHOOT]

- First of all there were no holidays for the upper grade.

Secondly, what can I tell you ... - Come on, talk. Speaks.

What do we do, the mysteries between us? - All right.

They brought up your brother, his famous political views.

Red here, red there ... The usual story. - Nice drains.

But is it my fault that I have a brother who is a member of the Communist Party?

- He's not even a communist anymore.

He is revolutionary, anti-militarist. - I know I know.

- In two words, continuous fighter. - And son of a whore.

- You have the same mom, Leo '. [PASTA RIDE]

- How many generals have they made? - Twelve.

Two of which are definitely recommended.

They will have the liberal brothers, you want me to tell you.

- I know that some have only an elementary school certificate , while at least I have a degree.

- Forget graduation, Leo. ' - Forget a damn thing.

Because if I leave the scalpel, I take the pen

and if I take the pen I use it like a sword.

- Eh ... Calm down, Leo '. No books and no memorials.

Otherwise I ca n't help you either.

(friendly) Forget it, son. You know what we live in.

Envy, jealousy, elbows! - Let's just say "buggered".

- Ah ... is this the language you use in your poems?

(annoyed) - No. - Too bad. I would have gladly read them.

[SHOOT] (in Neapolitan dialect) - Today my pulse is distracted.

Well, it went badly for the Greek, but I managed to get you transferred.

- Great news. What is my next destination, if it is permissible? Gaeta?

- But what Gaeta and Gaeta. You will go to direct the Scuola Superiore di Sanità in Florence.

And who wants to understand understand. I emphasize "Florence".

- No, there is no point in pointing out. I know what you mean, but you are wrong. Big.

(in Neapolitan dialect) - How complicated you are, Leo '!

Listen to me, go to Florence and don't piss me off, okay?

[TRAIN WHISTLE]

[EXPLOSIONS]

(man) - Hey, villagers! Where are you going? (man) - In Athens.

(man) - Straight ahead, after the cemetery.

(soldier) - Captain. - What's up?

(soldier, in Venetian dialect) - There is the mule who hasn't had a body for a week.

- Do you have diarrhea instead? The shale is over.

Give him a bottle of castor oil. Wait for me to give it to you.

[WHISTLE OF BOMBS] Here . - Thank you, captain.

[EXPLOSIONS]

[EXPLOSIONS AND SHOTS]

(Leo) - Is anyone there?

Respond.

Someone? - Someone? Do not you see it? We are many.

Many dead and few alive.

- Ah. But where is the major doctor?

- There is only one arm left of the doctor hanging from a tree.

The rest of the body is there, in the Vojussa.

- I'm the veterinary captain Leone.

(annoyed) - Yes, I understand, but this is not a riding station.

A surgeon is needed here. Roll up your sleeves and get busy!

- What sleeves? I am not a doctor.

I only know mules, horses, dogs!

(soldier) - And you assume that these are animals.

That's not a man, he's a mule. He has a bullet in his stomach.

Operate him if you don't want him to bleed to death.

(Leo) - Listen, here if I do n't operate on you, nobody works on you.

I'll do what I can.

But I warn you. I am a vet.

- Worse than beasts, porca madosca!

(Leo) - Let's not start neighing. (in Venetian dialect) - Just me!

(Leo) - This is war. - My Madonna!

[SHOOT IN THE DISTANCE]

- Hello. Hello. (soldier) - Send me home. Send me home!

- Calm calm.

How are you? (soldier) - Thank you sir captain, thank you.

(Leo) - Mr. General, how are we doing? - If you have to amputate my leg

do it soon. I trust her. blindly.

(Leo) - I will try to save her.

Generals are much more needed in war than mules.

(general) - You are a real soldier.

Our military doctors should all be like you .

(Leo) - I only do my duty.

(general) - I give you my word that I will personally propose it myself

for a reward of military valor.

- Who is that son of a bitch who said we were taking a walk to Athens?

(desperate, in Neapolitan) They pass by killing him. Send me home!

[SCRAP OF THE TRAIN]

(Lion, screaming) - Soldiers, military life is a big rip off.

Colonel Leone tells you.

Conscientious objectors, unite. - What's up?

(Lion shouting) - Enough with the military apparatuses.

Wars are waged to enrich the sharks. - What happens?

(conductor) - Nothing, nothing. I'll handle that.

(Leo) - Wars kill artisans, laborers, virgins, mules,

the dogs and the railway workers.

My brother Amedeo is right. He is a true companion.

That's enough. That's enough!

That's enough! (conductor) - General, are you feeling unwell?

[SHOTS ON THE DOOR] - What do you want?

- Do you need anything?

- No! What happened? (conductor) - I heard her scream.

- It was not me. - Don't worry, General. I think like her too.

- Ah ... (conductor) - Good night.

[TIRED BREATHING]

- It's useless. It's useless.

Thirty years that this story lasts.

I can't sleep lying down, I can't.

I have to sleep standing up.

[TRAIN WHISTLE]

[TRAIN WHISTLE]

[TRAIN WHISTLE]

[MUSIC TYPE NINNA NANNA]

[SOUND OF THE SIREN]

- Plan. Plan.

(Leo) - Be quiet. (soldier, in a low voice) - We seem to be carrying who knows what.

- Colonel Leoni? - Lion. Singular.

- Expected it for tomorrow. - Instead the free ride is over today.

I'll make you spit blood. How many do we have in force?

(soldier) - 105 medical students plus 30 pharmacists.

- Patients? - 51, of various weapons.

- Psychophysical state? - Hemorrhages, syphilis, heart attacks, fractures, only one death.

- Heart attack or syphilis? - Heartbreak.

His wife abandoned him and he stuck a knife in his stomach.

- Ah ... Japanese death. - Gentlemen.

(Leo) - You have borzacchini in an indecent state. - Borzacchini?

- Yes. The muddy, the shoes. Let them clean.

And have the avenues of this garden cleaned too . - Sirs, but they're clean.

- You understand me perfectly. Get them sweeping up on all these cleaners.

- Gentlemen.

Away, away, quick! I don't want to see anyone in the garden.

Everyone in the dorms, come on. Street.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Wasn't Colonel Petralli supposed to arrive ?

- Yes, but don't you know that they send all the pain in the ass to Florence ?

[LAUGH] - Sergeant!

Beware! Alt!

Commands, Colonel. - With me even the mules have to march in step.

- Gentlemen. Rest!

Be careful. Come on, marsch!

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(soldier) - Major doctor Poli under orders, colonel.

- You were right to introduce yourself. I mistook her for the butcher.

- I am. I just finished cutting a cadaver for anatomical practice.

- The suicide? - Gentlemen. - Very well. - Commands.

- Watch out to the left!

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(Leo) - Open up, Silvestri!

(Silvestri) - No, I will never leave my place. Never!

(Leo) - You barricaded yourself in there, huh? But you have to resign yourself.

(Silvestri) - No, no! I 'm not going to retire , Leone. I am not going!

- Do you want me to take my assault position?

(Silvestri) - Try it, if you are capable. Come on, try it.

(Leo) - And that's okay.

- Are you crazy? You've really gone mad.

Colonel Silvestri does not abandon his position, he defends it with his teeth.

(Leo) - Stop it with these children.

After all, you are a superior officer with a right to the horse.

You have three minutes to leave the Higher School of Health forever.

(Silvestri) - I don't take orders from you. We are equal

and I don't move from this chair. - You mind ditching the high chair, huh?

Come on, take your belongings and leave me this goddamn place.

- Sorry, is it my fault they fucked you?

What if instead of promoting you they moved you here?

(Leo) - Whoever is at fault will pay. Be calm.

Not everyone can make us generals.

You know? We now have over 2,000 generals.

- For that matter we have at least three times as many colonels . 6,000.

Indeed, 5,999. Because now you urgently get out of roles.

- It is useless for you to be a fanatic because you too colonel enter and colonel stay.

Like me. They hijacked you onto a siding.

- I'll take care of resurrecting him, don't worry.

- You would be the first soldier to perform a miracle.

Here is old age.

Malo you know, Leo, what do I lose by leaving here?

The youth.

- You enjoyed your youth, old Silvestri.

Go, go enjoy the undeserved rest.

(Silvestri, angry) - For me you are already sclerotic!

- And I tell you that you die before you collect the first installment of the pension.

- I scratch my balls! - Everyone knows that if you eat ras Mangascià.

Adua, 1935.

"Dear Lola, I arrived in Florence today and you have already hurt my heart.

The roses you sent back have stuck their thorns into my flesh.

But I'm not giving up. Will I be able to see you again? I answer myself: "yes".

What do I do? Will I send it to you?

No, better not.

Bucci.

Bucci. - Commands, Colonel.

- Did you saddle the mare? - Sir. - What are you waiting for? It is one o'clock.

- She is sick. - what has? - Horse fever, Colonel.

- I know what's wrong with that slut. Send her to the mount and you will see that she will heal.

She is a sentimental slut. Well?

[STRUGGENT MUSIC]

(Bucci) - What a line! What a detachment of thighs.

The one under the male must make sparks. - You only have to talk when the mare pisses.

- No. I was saying, Colonel, that the general's lady ... - Go, go, go.

- From the little horse that is ... Commands, Colonel.

[STRUGGENT MUSIC]

[NITRITUS AND CRY DILOLA SCREAM]

[SOSPIRO DI LOLA]

(soldier) - How do you feel '? - It's nothing. It was my fault

because I held on instead of giving up. [LOLA SCREAMS]

(Leo) - Easy, easy, heck! What do you do? Lay it down, slowly, gently. So.

(delicate) It could be Iussata. Let's see.

- Ouch. - Let's see. - The foot. - Here? To the metatarsus perhaps. - Yup.

Officers, you can go back to your horses.

Donna Lola just needs a doctor.

(official) - Gentlemen. - Ouch. (Leo) Bad? - It hurts.

- Here? (Lola) - Yes. - I really think it's the metatarsal.

I'm sorry, but I have to bare my ankle.

Does it hurt you? - Ouch. (Leo) - What do you feel? - Ouch, ouch.

' Oh! (Lola). Ahi,

- The fragrant foot of the dawn.

- Your roses were scented, Colonel.

- Does it hurt you here? (Lola) - Ouch!

- I don't want the ligaments affected. It hurts. What do you feel?

(hesitant and suggestive) - A twinge and ... like a tingling.

- If you liked roses, why did you return them to me?

Perhaps disappointed with my lack of promotion? - Ouch.

(persuasive) But what does Colonel Leone say?

- Women don't like losers.

"Those to whom it is night before evening", as the poet rightly says.

- But no, imagine. I sent it back because my husband doesn't want flowers for the house.

He would have crucified me. Ouch! - Pose '?

Does it hurt here? (Lola) - Yes. - Eh, I really think we have a talus distraction.

- What is that? - It is one of those seven small bones that join the leg to the heel.

As if to say that a small bone may be enough to be able to get closer to you.

(with complicity) - But you want to compromise me . Don't make me think

who had himself transferred to Florence for me. - Oh, no.

It would be as if I dared to hope that you fell off your horse for the same reason.

Let's say it was fate.

(Lola) - Let's say that my husband is coming and it is better for her to move.

It's such a black day ... But don't go away. No, that's too much!

So he confesses guilty and instead he is innocent.

Help me! But what are you doing standing there, huh?

[LOLA SIGHS] Arturo. I fell off my horse.

- No, nothing serious. It's a simple sprain. Vegeta-mineral water.

- News from Malta? [TOWARDS LEONE'S QUESTION]

(Pinecone) From Gibraltar?

- None.

- Arturo , come on, everything hurts me, come on.

- And is there fighting in El Alamein? (confused) - Signornò.

- So what do Marshal Rommel's armored columns do ?

- They retreat neatly to their predetermined positions.

Arturo, but how many times do I have to tell you that the war is over?

(Pinecone) - Lies of the enemy. Keep me informed. (Leo) - Gentlemen.

- This is the second time this has happened to him. - But this is galloping arteriosclerosis.

- My God, how is it possible like this, all of a sudden? - Eh, it happens.

But how long has it been like this? - Oh, sure, he has always been a difficult character,

a complex personality, but since they fucked him in the elections he has gotten worse.

A general, dear colonel, can't trust anyone,

not even the National Right. I told him to show up with the Republicans

moreover, our army is republican. But he nothing. And a hard head.

- How many illustrious victims does democracy. [LOLA SUSPIRES]

[TRUMPET RINGS]

(soldier) - On the march, visit. [BRUSH OF SOLDIERS]

(soldier) - Come on, move. In line for the coffee, move.

(soldier) - In line, in line!

[BRUSH AND CRYING FROM OUTSIDE]

[BRUSH AND CRYING FROM OUTSIDE]

[NOISE OF TYPING KEYS]

(soldier) - Under your orders. - Lieutenant, let the silence ring.

But they just got up, they 're having coffee.

I want absolute silence! I got it? Let the silence ring

and if you don't hear us, visit marks. [STRIKES THE HEELS] - Gentlemen.

- But the coffee ... - Send me a cup, hot.

[NOISE OF TYPING KEYS]

(Leo) - "In assuming command of the Higher School of Health

I decide to write my military memoirs.

My pen will know how to be eloquent as were the facts, the events

that marked my career and my fortune as a soldier?

Time will tell.

I leave poetry for prose for a need of spirit

for a gesture of pride that I don't know how to repress. "

(Leone) "My truck, which was wobbling through the roughness of the desert

it was often only a mirage for the wounded abandoned on the slopes of Libya.

Always unforgettable that night in 1942

the last one I spent in the oasis south of Sidi El-Barrani. "

[MUSIC TYPE NINNA NANNA]

[VERSES OF AGITATED SLEEP]

(Leo) - Long live England, long live the Commonwealth.

(ironic) Churchill makes me laugh.

He said: "If I were an Italian, I would be on Mussolini's side".

Then he's a dick too.

The British make me laugh. [IRONIC SMILE]

Nice strength. They have the means. Their...

They have tea at five. They smell like margarine.

And I ... I only have one truck here ...

for the wounded, for the garbage.

The British, they make me laugh. British! (shouting) The British are coming! British!

(soldier shouting) - Alarm! British! Alarm! Alarm!

[SHOOT] - Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!

(soldier) - Alarm! [SHOOT]

- Forward! Everyone in their own place. Away, away, hurry!

Fire at will! Go! Go! Go!

(breathless) - Captain, Mr. Captain. The British advance.

(Leo) - Who? - British. British!

(Leo) - Holy shit. I was dreaming of them right now.

(soldier) - Fire, fire! [BURSTS OF MITRA AND SHOTS]

[BURSTS OF MITRA AND SHOTS]

(Beltrami) - God damn the English.

(Leo) - Captain Beltrami, I'd be curious to see the magazine of your pistol.

- But which charger? What do you say? - I bet we miss a beat.

- But I don't understand you, sorry. - Classic self-harm gesture.

Come on, Beltrami. Out of the loaf. - The loaf? What are you saying?

- Yes, the loaf you shot yourself in the foot with.

- Sorry, Leo, you won't think that I ... - I don't think anything.

This is a 9 caliber bullet from the service pistol

supplied to the officers of the Italian Army.

- I don't know. I know the British shot me.

- Oh yes? Then get them treated.

Prepare the truck for the evacuation of the injured.

- Don't ruin my career. Listen, Leo!

You run the risk of being surrounded. The location is too open!

But excellency, we cannot leave the oasis.

- The oasis must be defended until the last man,

but we have to evacuate the division command ...

in order to guarantee its continuity. (soldier) - But we have no means.

Two days ago they were all delivered to the fleet

for engine overhaul, excellence.

- There's the Sanitation truck. - Do you have gasoline?

- The tanks of the Sanità are always full. - Then let's take the truck

and we move 20 kilometers west, but our fire must absolutely not decrease!

(soldiers, together) - we will win!

(official) - Come on.

Come on, go!

(Leone) - Old!

- Get out of the way or I will hold you responsible for the bad fortunes of the ongoing battle.

- The truck is from Sanità. I am responsible for it

and I will not leave it to you without a requisition order.

- Get out of the way! Bigger things are at stake than bureaucratic duties.

We are at war! - Sign me an order.

The order is that you make me reach the predetermined positions at any cost!

(angry) Move away! - Sir.

- Full speed ahead.

[LION'S CRY OF PAIN]

(Leo) - "Sometimes for a soldier , destiny appears mocking.

Being injured by a hit- and-run and a fascist in addition

it means that fate is your enemy and conspires against your career. "

(soldier, in Neapolitan) - Sergeant, I can't take it anymore. - Come on, push

that in a kilometer there is the petrol pump.

(soldier, in Neapolitan) - Let's leave this crap truck here.

- Come on, push otherwise I'll leave you here, come on. Get busy!

(soldier) - Watch out, it could be English.

(Leo) - Don't shoot. I'm italian.

- Password. (Leo) - Cretin.

- Oh, he's one of us. Come on Caputo, Nicosia, let's go.

Mr. captain. (Leo) - I have a broken leg. Help me.

(soldier) - Was it the British? (Leo) - And who else? God damn.

(soldier in Roman dialect) - Come on, let's take him to the truck and hurry up, he's in bad shape.

And a doctor is always handy.

(soldier, in Neapolitan) - He must have killed more than the English.

(soldier in Roman dialect) - Look where the hat has gone.

Plan. Plan that also has a broken leg.

(soldier in Roman dialect) Stop!

Plan, huh.

Don't break it any more than that.

Piano.

(soldier) - Blessed are you, captain, who are returning home.

[LION'S SOSPIRO]

(soldier in Roman dialect) - Let's go!

(Leo) "Libya, as it was later ascertained, was hiding under that sand

that we wanted to transform a sea of ​​oil into the garden of Italy.

And our truck reached white Benghazi pushed by arms

by Italian soldiers ready for anything,

although fed only on coffee, biscuits and pasta in broth.

More broth than pasta. "

(soldier) - Promotion of war merit in the field to Captain Leone Umberto

of the second health department. Medical officer very active on the entire Libyan front

while he was trying to find suitable means for the evacuation of the wounded

it was faced by overwhelming enemy forces.

Fearless he faced unequal combat.

Wounded, he praised the fascist homeland and the inevitable victory.

Without waiting for complete recovery, he asked and obtained to return

to his field hospital. Example of attachment to duty

and with a high humanitarian and Italic spirit.

Sidi El-Barrani, August 30, 1942.

[TRUMPET RINGS]

(Leo) - Another night spent standing.

[TRUMPET RINGS]

[TRUMPET RINGS]

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(soldier) - Watch out. (Leo) - Comfortable, comfortable. - Rest.

(Leo) - Today we will deal with self- harm

that is, the tendency to get wounds, injuries, diseases

in order to avoid combat or military life in general.

Self-harm is of all times and it seems born at the same time as heroism.

Indeed, in my humble opinion, Muzio Scevola did not burn his hand

for not having mortally struck the enemy, but for being reformed

and gloriously return to Rome.

And maybe even fuck the wives of the legionaries who fought at the front. [LAUGHS]

Attention, these are two cigars. What can two cigars do

in the field of military life? (soldier) - To smoke.

- Answer bitch. [LAUGHTER] Expected to be delivered for three days.

- To produce feverish states. (Leo) - You have not been questioned.

I take a glass of water.

I bathe the two cigars.

And I put them under my bare armpits before falling asleep.

The next morning I will get up in a feverish state and will mark a visit

in order to get me hospitalized to avoid exercise or combat.

How do you find out about cigar fever?

It doesn't turn out.

So if the soldier makes a visit, the medical officer will give him five days in jail.

However, if after five days the fever persists, it cannot be the fault of the cigars.

And then you must visit it carefully.

- If he's not dead in the meantime.

- This bloodless self-harm system has infinite variations

such as for example that of ingesting absorbent paper balls

so that ulcers are found on radiographic examination .

Or to inject low-fat milk intravenously or intramuscularly

in order to produce a prolonged state of prostration and debilitation.

And let's move on to the bloody. Here we have two loaves.

One is healthy, undamaged, and one has a hole surrounded by burns.

Please pass this burned loaf through. (soldier) - Sirs.

- Take a good look at it. As each of you can see, the hole has been created

from a 9 caliber bullet pistol.

The soldier who is injured in a fight

must be immediately referred to the Military Tribunal.

And what does the lazy soldier do? He takes the loaf

and puts it a few centimeters from the foot, at the height of the metatarsus.

Then he takes the gun and shoots. The bullet will go through the bread, the boot and the foot,

while the dust will remain on the surface of the bread.

- What if they distribute biscuits at the front? - Then the self-abuser is screwed.

[LAUGHS]

The trick is to make believe the blow from very far away, that is, from the enemy,

while instead he is shot from a few centimeters by the coward,

who not only avoids fighting, but also secures a war pension.

In my long career I have unmasked an indefinite number of cigar feverers.

[KNOCK ON DOOR] Come on.

To discover hundreds of fingers cut with their own bayonet

and even grated knees as if they were parmesan.

- What's up? - Your presence at the Bersaglieri group is urgent .

General Pigna is serious.

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

(soldier) - Come on, tighten. Tighten! Quick!

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

- Grant me, general.

Allow me to point out that it is already the 180e5imo lap they are doing.

We can go to rest, can't we?

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

(soldier in Roman dialect) - Lieutenant, I throw myself on the ground.

(Lieutenant) - Run, wash! (soldier) - I can't take it anymore.

(Lieutenant) - Me neither, but run. Away. Come on, get moving.

Fanfare, fanfare! Yet! Under! Tighten!

Line up and covered, on the [RINGS OF TRUMPETS]

Run, wash!

Tighten, tighten!

Come on, get moving. (in Roman dialect) - Are we doing the Polypiad?

(official) - Line up! Get up on your knees! (Lieutenant) - Go, go!

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

(exhausted) - Mortacci them!

- How are you? - No signs of improvement.

Indifference to environmental stimuli, absence, catatonia, absolute immobility.

- And the reflexes? - Totally absent. And stuck there.

- And how are the Bersaglieri? - They resist, but they suffer.

They have now completed the 183rd lap. - But, are they trained?

- Sir, they're recruits. Train on the ten morning laps after coffee. - I get it.

Here we go. (soldier) - Commands.

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

- Leo, wait! I'm so sorry.

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

Leo, please. No violent scenes or straitjacket

in front of the troop. - Be calm. I got an idea.

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

General, I have the honor to inform you that his majesty is the king of Italy

entrusted her with command of all the forces of North Africa,

Eastern and Western.

The order takes effect immediately, as stated in this royal decree.

They are only waiting for his arrival to unleash their retreat and boarding.

- My day.

What time does the convoy leave? - Today. We go with Settebello.

Colonel, the morale of the troops?

(clearing his throat) - Very high.

They only ask to believe, to obey, to fight. [LAUGH]

[RING OF TRUMPETS]

(Lieutenant) - Battalion, halt!

- Where are you going to the cemetery? - But he's got a brain hemorrhage.

The lieutenant said to take it slow. - And I'm the colonel.

Quickly! If not, take a corpse to the operating room. - Gentlemen.

- Testicle!

What is it, the war? - Sir.

- Then speak, snowman! (in Veneto) - There is in the Command Office ...

(Leo) - Who?

- A beautiful woman who asks for you.

- A beautiful woman?

Donna Lola!

But what was the attendant telling me?

(Lola) - How are you? - Eh ... I left him right now.

He absolutely wants to have an interview with Marshal Badoglio.

But please, please. (embarrassed) - No, thanks. It is already very late.

In fact, I came to get my husband back. - Are you kidding?

But you will understand, General Lupperini Spinola is waiting for us , we cannot make him wait.

At one o'clock at the table. And such a precise man.

- Donna Lola, your husband is in a sorry state. - But in short

but what happened that was so strange?

- He was wiping out a battalion of Bersaglieri.

(suggestive) - But they are big boys.

Oh my God, what an unfortunate setback.

- General Lupperini Spinola will understand.

- Excuse me, Colonel, I don't understand what my husband did that was so serious.

He made some Bersaglieri run. So?

In my opinion, all those who make them go slowly or stop them should be degraded .

(Leo) - I understand, I understand, Donna Lola. It is very painful.

It is for me too.

But it is absolutely not possible to dismiss the general.

In fact, I'll have to have him hospitalized ...

to the psychiatric ward. [SOSPIRO DI LOLA] - In the asylum?

- In the interest of the Army. - But not mine! Eh ...

- Yet believe me, many soldiers have rediscovered their glorious past there.

Well, your husband could be the spiritual leader.

(annoyed) - But no, no! But imagine now.

The madmen are brought to the asylum, those who scream

badly everyone knows that my husband is a silent man.

Did he scream? - No, not that. - So?

(allusive) Unless ... (Leo) - Unless, Donna Lola?

Unless you are saying to have my husband hospitalized

so I, helpless ... submit to his virile assault.

- But what you think is monstrous.

Eh ... Love is often a bad advisor.

- Not for someone like me who knows how to wait in silence.

[ROMANTIC MUSIC] [PHONE RINGS]

Sorry.

Soon.

Under orders, General Lupperini Spinola.

- I'm sorry, Colonel, but this time he deserves a shot.

- Sir.

Gentlemen.

Signornò. (Spinola) - Then discharge him immediately!

- No, look, I don't take any responsibility.

In this case, if you promise me a written order ...

I obey, general.

I am pleased to inform you that I have been ordered to discharge your husband.

- You're very kind. I am grateful to him.

- I'd take some advice.

At the table, avoid talking about elections. It could be dangerous.

- Yes, fine, but let's not dramatize now.

- Will I be able to meet you again?

- I will like your roses. - And already something.

- Colonel, what a pity. You would have been a great gynecologist.

He has very small hands.

[ROMANTIC MUSIC]

- Kill what your breath stinks.

(Leo) - Insufflate. Blow in hard, come on.

Go, now second position. Artificial respiration.

Your arms, lift them strongly to the height of your head. Street.

One...

two. Power.

Press, press against the chest.

Third position. Trunk raised.

Out your tongue, out! Fearless, out that tongue!

[A SOLDIER SHOUTS] What are you yelling about, half saw?

(soldier) Mr. Commander, Colonel Beltrami wants to talk to you.

(Leo) - You continue the exercise. (soldier) - Sirs.

We continue with the breathing exercises .

- "Prophet of misfortunes and to your evil heart it was always sweet to predict misfortunes."

What's up? - Forget the lire, we're in big trouble. - Speaks.

- General Pigna. - You won't tell me he's back at the Bersaglieri barracks.

- No, he's dead. He killed himself.

[SOSPIRO DI LEONE] (Leone) - Madonna del Carmine!

- An hour ago. Gunshot to the temple.

(Leo) - It was to be expected. I said it was necessary to keep him here.

- Leone, we know attic, you and Donna Lola.

Officially General Pigna ...

he might still be alive.

- Sure.

- Then take him to the stables as a matter of urgency with your own means. - The dead.

- Pretending he's alive. - With coffin or without? - It's elementary, isn't it?

If he died, with. But since he is still alive, without.

[SOLEMN MUSIC]

[SHOT OF WHIP] [NITRITE]

[SOLEMN MUSIC]

(Leo reads) Death certificate. Major General Arturo Pigna was Benito.

Died during a war exercise following a fall from a horse

in the locality of Maneggio di Pratolungo in Florence ...

[MUSIC FROM REQUIEM]

He died with dignity, as a true soldier. [LOLA nods]

- Even if in peacetime.

(Leo) - Soon, at the Pigna house.

- "Only those who leave no inheritance of affections have little joy in the urn".

Foscolo says well.

(sobbing) - No. No.

(sobbing) Arturo can't be happy there either.

- "There" meant as "beyond", do you say? [LOLA SUSPIRES]

(sobbing) - Yes.

(sobbing) Why? Why?

How can I tell? I am almost ashamed.

But if I don't tell her she has done so much for me. If I don't tell you, what about kilo?

I am still a virgin.

[LOLA nods]

I'm not even a widow.

I'm just a spinster.

- Maybe pain makes you say nonsense.

(hesitant) Also ... even for retirement purposes, believe me.

- He would have liked.

But then he didn't. He did nothing at all.

- Absolutely? [LOLA nods]

Yes ... Yes, I said to him: "Arturo, Arturo tries.

Insist! "

But do you know what he was replying to me '? "No! We are at war

and during the war certain things are not done. Think of the soldiers! "

I even went so far as to humor him and said to him: "Arturo, but the soldiers are young.

(emphatically) They have time!

If they live ... "

[SUSPIRES] Like talking to a wall.

And I endured everything, in silence.

For us women of the South, love life is a military secret.

(sobbing) kept him silent.

But now ... now he's gone.

What is the use of keeping silent?

[DEEP BREATH]

- But did your husband talk during his sleep? Was she fidgeting, screaming?

(Lola) - No! No, no. He slept like a baby.

- Lucky him. - The fault lies with Badoglio.

Yup! It was he who in 1943 said: "The war continues".

And my husband took his word for it.

(disheartened) If at least someone above said, "The war is over.

Take care of the wives, the children and make up for lost time. "

And perhaps I would now be neither a widow nor a virgin,

but happy bride.

Because he would be alive, next to me.

Yes, yes. I told him: "Arturo ... Arturo handsome, I swear to you it's over!"

But he shook his head and didn't want to believe me.

He treated me like an ordinary soldier.

It was beautiful ... It was well done, I liked it. - Sorry, Donna Lola.

But haven't you married a man a little too old in age? brave, okay,

but old. - Why? The man in uniform never gets old.

Everyone knows, Colonel.

And I'm young, eager to get to know ...

I made a lot of cold baths. l rheumatism taken.

(Leo) - Drink, it will do you good. - No.

You fear Panfetaminico, huh? No.

I have longed for you and for a long time, but if it happens, it will happen by consensus.

(proud) And then, believe me, I'll be a bazooka.

[ROMANTIC MUSIC]

(Leo) - Drink, drink. It will do you good.

[ROMANTIC MUSIC]

- Thank you.

What has he got now? Are you worried about this morning?

- No. For once, I'm thinking about myself.

To my unhappiness. - Oh, holy Madonna.

Won't she have problems too, like my poor Arturo?

- No, don't worry. (relieved) - Ah ...

- Well, I'm not twenty anymore but ...

I remember, the first time was ... (Lola) - Thirty years ago. - About.

In Guadalajara, Spain.

Her name was a scream: Carmen.

(pleased) That woman between her legs had a real tiger,

sorry for the expression but the memory of her is excruciating.

Well, Carmen could have made me a slave.

Yes, because I only fully realize myself when I can serve.

That's why I spent most of my manhood during the battles at the front

of my sexuality.

And now what remains of it I would like to give to you.

Only you, Donna Lola. (hesitant) - But how much is left?

- Quite. We will return to the subject.

[LOLA'S EXHAUSTED SOSPIRE]

- What did I tell you?

Cancer.

He will notice when he pisses.

Continue with the other analyzes.

[EXPRESSION OF DISRUPTION]

- But the colonel took Cicuta's medical record and D'Agata has cancer.

A mess happens here.

We must warn him. You go there. - I will not go. Who makes me do it?

Then that one takes it out on me. - You go there.

- I don't even think about it. - Belomi. [EXPRESSION OF DISCLAIMER]

- So who goes there? Someone has to go there too!

Rosi, you who are on duty go there.

- Fever today? - 38.5.

- What about diarrhea? - Keep it going.

- Go. Go for a walk in the garden.

With caution. - Thank you.

- Lieutenant Cicuta. "Signors."

- Would you like a cigarette? - Actually she forbade me.

- Fumes, fumes. - Thank you. - It'll do you good.

I hope, Lieutenant, you can behave like a real soldier.

I am of the opinion that it is always better to tell the truth to a soldier, to an officer

even if deadly. Do you agree? - And sir!

- And gentlemen.

You have bladder cancer. It is a matter of months.

So go home quietly ...

to enjoy, so to speak, life.

- But is it safe? - The analysis is clear.

I give you two months of leave, are you happy? Come on, don't take it.

Of course, it was more heroic to fall under enemy lead

but what do you want to do with it? For thirty years we have no more enemies.

Colonel, that's not fair. It's not right.

Let cancer condemn me and leave a criminal like you alive

a great son of a whore. - Shut up.

(Cicuta) - A butcher. - I'm only sorry because you're no longer in the Army.

(in Roman dialect) - You can't bother me anymore .

(soldier) - Colonel.

- What's up? - There was a misunderstanding, but it wasn't me.

(softly) He exchanged D'Agata's analyzes with Cicuta's.

It's D'Agata who has cancer. (Leo, softly) - Then let's do the math.

(soldier) - Sirs.

Lieutenant, this is good news.

She has syphilis and in that company I send her to the military court.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(Lion, screaming) - Piantone! Call Major Poli!

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

[KNOCK ON DOOR] - Come on.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Commands, Colonel. - I have the order, but not the pleasure, to communicate them

that today you were promoted to lieutenant colonel. Congratulations.

- Thank you, Colonel. (Leo) - There is nothing else. - Commands.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

Butcher...

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

[COMMANDI IN GERMAN]

[COMMANDI IN GERMAN]

[ACTION MUSIC] [GERMAN SOLDIERS BRUSH]

[ACTION MUSIC]

[GERMAN ORDERS]

[ACTION MUSIC]

[GERMAN ORDERS]

[ACTION MUSIC]

[GERMAN ORDERS]

[ACTION MUSIC]

(Leo reads) No, I didn't shoot on September 8, 1943

when from the window of the Military Hospital of Chieti on the street of Pescara

I saw the new enemy appear.

[NOISE OF BREAKING GLASSES]

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

(Leo) - Long live the king!

(Leo reads) His Majesty the King with his entourage fled

or did he reach his fighting post among the soldiers?

Those were days when it was difficult to tell who was running away and who was doing their duty.

(official) - Major. (Leo) - Commands. - Are you a doctor? - Gentlemen.

(officer) - Go up, the high command may need you. (Leo) - Thank you.

The flag does not enter. (official) - You must enter. I have the order.

(Leo) - But where are we going? (official) - In Pescara.

(Leo) - And if there are Germans? (official) - If there were them

we wouldn't go there.

(Leone reads) - The boarding in Ortona in the province of Pescara was tumultuous.

Many were the senior officers who remained on the ground for lack of jobs.

But I, as a medical officer, was ordered to board first.

The royal court could not escape without a doctor.

(official) - Majesty, it's cold, preserve yourselves.

- Call the Navy command and find out

if German submarines have been sighted in the Adriatic .

- Your Majesty, Marine Command is not responding. - But it's impossible. Insist.

- Majesty, we cannot risk signaling our presence to the Germans.

- Then don't insist. - Under your orders, your majesty.

(Leo) - Cowards. Cowards!

We run away like sheep, like rats leaping from a sinking ship.

We are all cowards! Gentlemen. Gentlemen!

Signornò! Rest! The king is a coward! And his son too!

L Germans. The Germans! Shoot him! Kill them all.

But who shoots? Don't shoot anyone!

No. The king doesn't shoot. The king runs away. (screaming) they all run away!

We want the republic, the democracy! We want peace.

Purification! The elections!

(screaming) The war was bullshit!

Down with the king! Send the prince to the nursing home!

That's enough! That's enough! Long live the republic!

(official) - Get out of there and qualify.

- Major doctor Umberto Leone. - Repeat what you said.

- Major doctor Umberto Leone. - No. The infamies he said against the monarchy.

- It? - Yes she. - I slept. Only crazy people talk when they sleep

and I am sane of mind and body. - You lie!

But he will pay dearly, perhaps with his life.

He will answer for subversion before a military court, a vile republican.

Go to the duty officer and have yourself put in irons on my order.

And button your jacket! Fasten your shirt, put on the belt!

We are not at the tavern.

(soldier) - Her Majesty the Queen needs a doctor right away.

- If you look for it. - I found it. And he.

- This is no longer a medical officer. And an officer on trial.

(soldier) - But he is the only doctor on board.

(official) - Then go and woe to her if her majesty continues to suffer.

Remember that you have sworn allegiance to the king.

- Yes, sir.

Do you know the symptoms of the disease? (soldier) - Yes, it seems that he is throwing up

and he also has diarrhea. - Queen? - Of course. - Who would have thought?

(Leo reads) - I stayed all night next to the queen, sunny woman

but of mountain origin, not very accustomed to sea life.

His Majesty the King slept in the cabin next door instead

avoiding the Prince of Condé.

But that night on board the bayonet not even General Ciccolo

my unfortunate accuser, he slept.

When we arrived in Brindisi, her Majesty the queen

he gave me a photograph of him with a dedication.

For the first time, I felt proud to be leaving animal medicine

for the human one.

The promotion to lieutenant colonel came to me in Bari

provisional capital of liberated Italy.

The government building was housed in an elementary school

as if the ministers and rulers had to start by learning the alphabet.

I was responsible for the health of all members, respectfully speaking, of the government.

(general) Major Leo.

- Lieutenant colonel, general. - And since when?

(Leo) - Promoted today. - When you promote

who should certainly be degraded and logical that the plebs shout "down with the king!".

Leo, Leo, you should at least have the common sense to sleep gagged.

(Leo) - Gentlemen. - I would have had her shot.

Long live the king!

- Long live the king!

(Leo reads) - That was the last time I praised his majesty.

A few years later, in fact, I swore allegiance to the republic without hesitation.

But that same night I dreamed that on my knees I asked the queen for forgiveness

and that she kissed me on the mouth forgiving me.

What do you think? And it's not finished.

This my work between memory and literature

it could be enriched with even more burning episodes .

But sometimes I feel remorse and I say to myself: "Is it right or not right

that I reveal the other side. The face that we soldiers should always keep hidden

from a higher interest? "

But the memories, the bitterness burn,

especially when you have suffered an injustice and then ...

I would like to shoot at zero.

On the whole.

I do not know. What do I do?

Continuous or tear? [SOSPIRO DI LOLA]

- Balls are. But if it was done! Write everything down, talk. Let's talk!

And enough with the sense of duty. I'm fed up on my own.

And she too! We are here as if the whole world is spying on us and instead we are alone. Alone!

And we don't have to answer to anyone. And we have to do what we want.

Shooting! Shoot zero against hypocrisy!

- What are you doing, are you undressing? - Yup! Naked.

(screaming) I'm undressing. Naked! - God! I haven't even brought the sedatives.

- Better! Enough of this good comedy.

I'm sick of being an inconsolable widow and seeing her playing the suitor

who does not dare to reach out! Stop! Let's behave like soldiers.

This is the moment. Do the corporal! Forward.

You treat me like a broom or you declare war on me . You consider me your enemy.

Shoot me! You hurt me, you puncture me!

No, I'm not an impregnable fortress either . I am a young woman

who wants, desires, hopes, sighs. Call me Carmen, if it helps!

(exasperated) But attack me!

- Here. (Lola, eager) - Yes. Yes.

Come on, take a stand.

- I'm ready. (Lola, eager) - Yes. Yes!

Beautiful. [SHOT AT THE TABLE] (Leone) - Ah! The meniscus!

(Lola) - It's nothing. Ouch!

(Leo) - Here ...

Arrival. (Lola, eager) - Yes, yes!

[OBJECTS ON THE GROUND] - Get rid of this stuff.

(Lola) - Yes, take it all away. Ouch! No, not there. I feel nothing.

- And where? - I'll address him. (eager) Further down! - Yup.

- Further down. - Yes. [GEMITI]

(Lola) - Nice. - (Leo) One, two. One two. - (Lola) - Don't delay.

(Leo) - One, two. One two. One two. (Lola) - Yes, nice!

(Leo) - One, two. One two. One two. [GEMITI DI LOLA]

(Lion) - Position ... [MOON OF LOLA]

(Lola, eager) - Colonel, colonel. Yes, yes.

(Lola) - Make me dance. Let me dance the flamenco! (Leo excitedly) - Yes.

(Lola) - I'm not Lola anymore. (Leo) - No. (Lola) - I'm Carmen!

Carmen! (Leo) - Yes! (Lola) - Try it. Call me Carmen.

[LEONE GEME] (Leo) - Yes.

(Lola, disappointed) But how ?! And I?

(soldier) - Commands, colonel. - Come on, dear.

Go to the florist on Via Tornabuoni. buys 100 red roses, the most beautiful in Florence

and deliver them to this address. Go. - Sirs.

(Leo) - Try to get me this commission in less than half an hour

if you want to earn 15 days of premium license.

- Gentlemen.

[TABLEWARE ON THE GROUND] (Man) - Fuck you and whoever died.

(Leo) - How's the butcher's going, Colonel Poli?

- Cut and sew, commander.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Today the pupils eat broth, meat and cheese. - No, no broth.

Pasta and stew. - Gentlemen.

- Say, are you married? - Sir. - Fiance? - Sir.

- No, I say, but do you like pussy? - Gentlemen.

- Aren't you a hole? - No. - Bravo.

- Colonel. - Yup?

They tell us from the territorial command that there is a piercing ulcer to be operated on immediately.

- Soldier, non-commissioned officer, officer? - It's about General Beltrami.

- How how? - General Beltrami.

- I only know one Colonel Beltrami.

- Sir. The telegram says general. - Let me see.

Holy shit!

They also promoted him and without my knowledge. [CRAPPED PAPER]

Call Lieutenant Colonel Poli. Let him put it down.

(shouting angrily) Because if it gets in my hands, I'll rip his guts out, by God!

Officers, beware.

Three surgeons plus two assistants, general.

(Beltrami) - Rest, thank you. (Poli) - Rest.

Ready to lift.

To lift.

Depose.

Via the stretcher bearers. Bed sheet.

- Will you cut me, colonel? - Gentlemen.

- But you don't teach anatomy to dissecting cadavers? - Gentlemen

but I also operated on the live. About 20 interventions.

- How many? [CLEARING OF VOICE] - Sterile pocket knives.

- But Leo?

I know why he didn't come. He doesn't like my promotion to general.

- How do you say? - No, nothing, nothing.

- Actually he didn't feel neutral enough.

- But you do your duty.

- Gentlemen.

Kocher!

- Slowly.

- Give it here.

(softly) - You're shitting on yourself, huh? - Hello.

Leo, get down.

Don't kill me.

If I stay alive, I swear to my son that I will do the impossible

to get you the promotion within the year.

- In misfortune you are lucky. Today is the best day of my life.

Got engaged. You owe everything to Lola Pigna. - Oh yes?

- He'll save you, shit!

Mask. - You are very kind.

[TYPE MACHINE KEYS]

(Leo reads) At five in the evening, just like a verse from Garcia Lorca

a plane deposited us on the island whose name and location I cannot reveal

because still today covered by military secret.

Just as I cannot report the month, the year and the day.

On the other hand, I can report that the then Lieutenant Colonel Beltrami was with me

Lieutenant Mancini, a psychiatrist, and a group of non-commissioned officers and enlisted men.

Because they had chosen me, the medical officer, to serve a mission

so mysterious and delicate I just can't imagine.

Maybe something had to be medicated.

Ah, and this would be a madhouse?

- Well, it looks more like a concentration camp than a madhouse .

- A concentration camp is the same as a mental hospital and a mental hospital is often the same as a concentration camp.

- Luckily it's empty. - Not for long.

- What location are we in? - I don't know

and even if I did, I wouldn't tell him.

- The soldiers will ask questions. They will at least want the mailing address.

- No address. This locality does not officially exist.

(Mancini) - But without post the morale of the troops goes to the ground.

(Leo) - You are showing that you have no faith in your superiors

and reveals little military aptitude.

Do you know what your job here is? Supervise the kitchen.

So go and hurry.

There are a thousand covers on the way.

- But I'm a psychiatrist, not the head cook.

- Imagine that I am a surgeon. Go, go, go.

- Who wrote this stuff? - What are you looking at me? I do not know.

- Ah, let's get off to a good start. Street. Street.

(Leo) - So, let's see where we can place these our welcome guests.

We put the Communists in accommodation number one .

One. - Where do we put your brother? It will be the first.

- Don't be funny.

My brother we'll put him with the anarchists, God damn him, on two.

(Beltrami) - Then at number three we put the Catholics on the left. - Yes.

We put them together with the Republicans, so those are few and there are.

- Excuse me, and where do we put the neo-fascists?

- Beltrami, wake up.

Wake Up!

- But how do you think this affair will turn out?

I don't see very clearly, you know Leone.

(with arrogance) - As you can see that you do not know our country well.

If he succeeds, we fit some pain in the ass, we make them look crazy

and we also get merits. If it goes wrong, well ... There is always the military secret.

- Ah, but ... I hadn't thought about it.

- Listen, you better go to sleep because tomorrow maybe the first ones will arrive.

- I bet that the first will be the Communists, as in the marking of the electoral lists.

They are always the first. - Bet won, but easy.

[MUSIC TYPE NINNA NANNA]

(Leo) - Look out! Alert!

Here a coup d'etat is being prepared without the government's knowledge.

Who knows? Get the Communists out of the restraining beds.

(soldier) - What's going on, what's he saying? (Leo) - Return them to Parliament.

Stop! - Corporal, I'm running away. (soldier) - Where would you escape?

(Leo) - Citizens! Comrades! - I have a family and my office manager is a Camorra.

I don't want trouble. - let's call Beltrami. (Leo) - I am a vet!

(delirious) - Too many generals. Too many generals.

(Beltrami) - Leo, Leo! - Too many generals.

What's up? - Lion. Lion!

- Huh? - Here, instead of subversives , the Carabinieri arrive if you don't shut up.

- Who? (Beltrami) - The Carabinieri. Come on, come on, wake up.

Wake Up! - Yup.

But in short, what was I saying?

- I'm even afraid to repeat it. Everyone heard you.

- Swear you're telling the truth. - But how?! You screamed like crazy.

It is the split.

My damn subconscious shooting at zero.

What can I do about it? - But do you hear, when you dream, do you always scream like this?

- Unfortunately. I have been suffering from this doubling for more than twenty years .

But I have to recompose my split with willpower, in the face of Freud.

I must be when I sleep what I am when awake.

At the cost of sleeping standing up, like a horse. Eh!

I can't play my career at a time like this.

- No, look, if it's for me, I haven't heard anything.

Look, Leo. You know my advancement is near .

- Ask me what you want.

- You should forget something about me. - I get it.

Sidi El-Barrani, the bullet in the foot. The loaf.

- That's right, thanks.

It will be done.

But woe to you if you pass me one degree.

[TRUMPET RINGS]

(Leo reads) - The days passed without events, without news, without orders

in uncertainty every day more distressing.

The soldiers suffered from boredom and nostalgia, without mail from home, without women,

unaware of everything.

They wasted the hours of free time in useless games , in endless chatter

in masturbation.

- Say, can you play trump? - Huh? No.

- I'll teach you, so we pass the time. - Why, we're waiting for the X time

and you talk to me about trump? Come on, let's be serious.

- Yeah, but you have to admit it's a nice pain in the ass.

Do you know what I dreamed of tonight? - Don't talk to me about dreams, please.

- I dreamed they sent us home. - What's up?

- Colonel, urgent encrypted message . (ironic) - Throw the glass down.

Here we are.

Call the retreat and assembly ring, right away.

- Lieutenant Soriano, retreat and assemble, quick.

[TRUMPET RINGS]

The madman's clock goes on for two hours, his mortacci. - You know him by now. No?

[TRUMPET RINGS]

(official) - Move, move, run!

[TRUMPET RINGS]

(official) - Beware.

(Leo) - We return immediately to the bases. Come on, quick, quick, ready to go.

(Beltrami) - Lieutenant, break the lines. - We got away with it.

- What happens? - Nothing. All postponed until a later date.

Sin. I would have gladly seen my brother here again.

You go back to your Bersaglieri and I go back to my patients.

(Leone reads) - After a few weeks I arrived on a motorcycle

at the Military Hospital of Naples, the longed-for promotion to colonel.

Since then my life has stood still, as if I had been locked in a refrigerator

together with my memories, my ambitions

and my future.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Ola go or break it, Colonel Leone.

[BERSAGLIERI FANFARA]

(soldier) - Colonel Leone?

Colonel, please follow me.

It precedes it.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Medical Colonel Umberto Leone, commander of the Higher Health School.

Yes, sir.

- Come on.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

- Rest.

Do you prefer to stand or sit? (Leo) - On your feet, thank you.

We have read your book. You have brilliant literary qualities.

The Army has often had great writers, see Julius Caesar. Congratulations, colonel.

But if literature is fantasy,

military life is silence.

The writer speaks

and the soldier is customary to obey by keeping silent and to be silent by obeying.

"Africa 1942."

Where were you in August of '42? - In Sidi El-Barrani.

Field hospital 118. - It's impossible.

Sidi El-Barrani was in enemy hands.

What does he have to say in his defense? - Nothing. I wrote it the plain truth.

At Sidi El-Barrani I was taken prisoner with my entire battalion in August 1942

overwhelmed by huge enemy forces. Were you taken prisoner? - Sir.

- So she wasn't there. (Leo) - I was there.

Sidi El-Barrani was occupied three days after the events I narrated.

Of this I am more than sure.

Perhaps, general, you don't remember well. - Then you think I'm wrong

or what a mint.

- I have an iron memory. (general) - We too.

Evidently she intends to challenge us.

- No. I challenge history.

Colonel Leone,

Are you sure you haven't dreamed it all?

Of not having by chance confused the dream with reality?

Think carefully before answering.

- Mr. General, when I write I'm awake. Of this I am quite sure.

- From a medical point of view the case is common. Healed with a three-month license.

- Thank you for the offer. He'll consider it a marriage license, since I ...

(general) - Colonel Leone.

Colonel, it seems to me that you are tired, exhausted.

I would advise you, in your own interest and that of your future bride, to take care of yourself

before getting married. (general) - Indeed ...

there are pages in his book or memoir that cannot be explained

than under the influence of enormous nervous depression.

If you let it be said. - I'm used to taking it at face value

everything my superiors say. (General) - Bravo, Leo.

So speaks a real soldier.

[SOSPIRO DI MISAPPUNTO]

- What...

- Where was he during the painful days of the Armistice in September 1943 '?

- As it appears in my novel, I was aboard the corvette "La Baionetta"

following his Majesty and the full staff.

- Impossible.

She is not on the list of participants in that trip .

- What...

Yet ... yet I was there. I personally treated the seasick queen

and of an acute diarrheal form.

- You mention the dead and the dead cannot testify

apart from the fact that it violates medical secrecy and the Hippocratic Oath.

- I can assure you I was there. General Ciccolo ... (general) - Dead!

She must be convinced that she was elsewhere.

- And where? - In the North, with the Fascists, in Salò.

- And no! Signornò.

In Salò no. (general) - Calm down, please. (Leone) - I was in Bari.

- Colonel Leone

how he would get there from Chieti to Bari

if from the ship's documents he is not embarked on the king's ship?

Rip off.

- No.

(general) - Leo, think carefully and do not insist against your own interest

in such a delicate moment in his career.

The advancement commission just these days is benignly considering

the possibility of his promotion to general.

You see, Leo, she has the stature of a leader,

but the mentality of a quartermaster. Take a qualitative leap.

Choose a higher destiny.

- I will answer by quoting the noble words of General Galbusera.

"No officer can refuse the responsibility of the rank.

The soldier who acts without ambition refuses to serve the Army. "And I ...

before being a writer, I want to be a soldier.

So while I exclude ... Yes, because I exclude it, of having been to Salò

I admit, indeed I confirm, that I went to Bari

by personal means.

(general) - Thus speaks a man in his right mind. - Eh ...

- We never doubted his high sense of duty.

[SOSPIRO DI MISAPPUNTO]

- General gentlemen, I have an important statement to make.

Contrary to what my book says, I have never been

in a concentration camp, never. Nor do I know of secret locations, never seen before.

- Well no! You ran a concentration camp.

I ordered it myself. And that's not enough!

From a report from our Information Service

it turns out that in the night the then lieutenant colonel Leone screamed filthy words

against the Army, against me, against you.

In short, he does not deserve the rank of general.

- What do you say, what do you say? You are raving, general.

But then, she too is exhausted. Take care, by God!

But what do we have, the whole sick Army? - I think he's right.

I will cure myself.

- So, everything written in the third chapter, sorry, never happened.

It couldn't happen. It will never happen.

Of course what remains, I think, can be published.

(general) - Of course.

(hesitant) And ... we will be grateful if you send us a copy with dedication.

- It will be done, thanks. (general) - Listen, Leo.

Listen to me, decide to graduate in Medicine and Surgery.

- General, but you believe that the Army would have had dozens of my legs amputated

remove ulcers, hernias, appendages, extract thousands of enemy bullets

from the flesh of our soldiers ... if I were not a surgeon?

- In fact it is impossible.

And I agree with you completely.

- Yes, sir.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

[LION'S SOSPIRO] - What an effort.

But thank God this is done too. - You look tired.

- Yes? - You should get a good night's sleep. - I know.

Rather than sleep, however, I would like to spend three days and three nights lying on a bed.

But do you know what they say "lying down"? "Horizontal". - Quite right.

Because moreover, by dint of standing, you have flat feet.

- Huh? It's not nice.

After all we are not yet husband and wife. Until May 24 we are still lovers.

[SOSPIRO DI LOLA] - Lovers don't sleep. - Don't worry.

[MILITARY MARCETTA]

[MUSIC TYPE NINNA NANNA]

- The war continues. [TOWARDS LOLA'S QUESTION]

- The war continues.

(Leone) - Lola. (Lola) - Oh, no!

Even him!

[MILITARY MARCETTA]