The sequence of events involving protagonists Totò and Fernandel take place in Assola, a small fictitious town on the border between Italy and France. Filming actually took far from France, more specifically in Venafro, a municipality in the province of Isernia in Molise. Many streets and squares were used to shoot this film. Ferdinand was born in the Auberge des deux frontieres in piazza Vittorio Veneto which creates problems of nationality for the French customs officer because of its position straddling the border. The mairie, town hall, in the French part of Assola where Ferdinand races to request a birth certificate to prove he is a French citizen is Palazzo del Prete di Belmonte. The town hall on the Italian side where he requests the documents to prove his Italian citizenship is the town hall, Palazzo Comunale, in Venafro. The approach into Assola, signalled by a place sign in the opening scenes of the film when Ferdinando has just arrested Giuseppe La Paglia, is in via delle Tre Cappelle.
The sequence of events involving protagonists Totò and Fernandel take place in Assola, a small fictitious town on the border between Italy and France. Filming actually took far from France, more specifically in Venafro, a municipality in the province of Isernia in Molise. Many streets and squares were used to shoot this film. Ferdinand was born in the Auberge des deux frontieres in piazza Vittorio Veneto which creates problems of nationality for the French customs officer because of its position straddling the border. The mairie, town hall, in the French part of Assola where Ferdinand races to request a birth certificate to prove he is a French citizen is Palazzo del Prete di Belmonte. The town hall on the Italian side where he requests the documents to prove his Italian citizenship is the town hall, Palazzo Comunale, in Venafro. The approach into Assola, signalled by a place sign in the opening scenes of the film when Ferdinando has just arrested Giuseppe La Paglia, is in via delle Tre Cappelle.
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Fernandel — Venafro (IS)
Copyright: ©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale, Roma. Selezione a cura di: Valentina Contessi, Elisabetta Chiarotti, Alessandro Andreini
Fernandel — Venafro (IS)
Copyright: Cristaldi Film
Fernandel, Totò — Venafro (IS)
Copyright: Cristaldi Film
Fernandel, Totò — Venafro (IS)
Copyright: Cristaldi Film
Totò, Fernandel — Venafro (IS)
Les Films Ariane, Filmsonor, France Cinéma Productions, Vides France
The Neapolitan smuggler Giuseppe La Paglia and the French customs officer Ferdinand Pastorelli live in Assola, a village divided in half by the French-Italian border. Having arrested by Ferdinand, Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was born from an unknown father and an Italian mother in Italian territory, so even though he is registered with the French ministry, the customs officer has not entitled to act as a French customs officer.
