Terence Hill's 'Don Camillo' celebrated his 20th anniversary in 2003. Reason enough for a special report including details of the filming, an interview with Don Camillo actress Lorenza Residori and photos of the movie locations showing how much has changed in the last 20 years!

'Don Camillo' was filmed from April until July 1983, in a town in Northern Italy called Pomponesco and surrounding villages. The towns were used for the outside scenes, Don Camillo's church was rebuilt in the studios of Cinecittà in Rome. One of the most famous and funny moments of 'Don Camillo' is the scene of him and three girls roller skating in church. The sequence involves great 'stunts' on skates and ends with the Bishop arriving; not being amused about Don Camillo's unusual behavior.

Lorenza Residori, who played the roller skater Gabriella, talks about her experience of the 'Making of Don Camillo':

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	Lorenza Residori as Gabriella (on the right) and today (left). She is the trainer of Italy's National Artistic Roller Skating Team.

Lorenza, how did you get the part of 'Gabriella' in 'Don Camillo'?
In a strange way: I was the trainer of the local roller skating team at the time. The casting agency of 'Don Camillo' called me to ask for some photos of children who could roller skate well. I was on some of the pictures which were sent to the casting agency, too. Terence looked at the photos and decided to choose me for the part of Gabriella, the skating girl. He thought that Jennifer Hingel, the American actress who played Lilly and I would look well together. That's how I got the part.

What can you remember of this time?
In preparation of the movie, Terence had to learn how to roller skate, so I moved to Rome for one month to give him skating lessons. He was very athletic and even jumped on the benches on his skates. The skating scenes in church were shot in the studios of Cinecittà in Rome, where the interior of the church was rebuilt. It would have been inappropriate to film the roller skating scenes in a real church of course and we practiced skating in the studios too. The outside scenes were all done in the Pomponesco area. It was a great experience for me and we all had a wonderful time. The cast became good friends.

Terence and Lorenza in the studios of Cinecittà. She taught him how to roller skate.

Did anything unusual happen during filming?
I remember a funny incident: The scene in which Terence/Don Camillo skates in church and falls back onto a bench, remember this one? In fact, he fell down on the bench so hard that he broke it! He didn't hurt himself, so we all started to laugh. He just looked and started to laugh too! (video clip)
For another scene, Terence decided to put the camera on the ground and I had to jump over it on my skates. It was a little difficult but he helped by taking me by the hands so I wouldn't fall down after the jump.
One day, I had an accident: While skating a pirouette, I fell and sprained my ankle. Terence rushed over to help. I could walk but my ankle was swollen and wouldn't go down. After waiting for two days and not seeing much improvement with my condition, the younger girl Nina had to take over and do the scene with the pirouette.

Terence also directed this movie. What can you remember about that?
He stood behind the camera and had someone else playing his part to see what it would look like on camera before he did the scenes himself. He always went back and forth from watching and acting to make sure that everything would be perfect.

The scene where Don Camillo and the girls skate inside the confessional had to be repeated 17 times. Every movement had to be in synch.

What about the scene in which the Bishop arrives while you are skating and Terence falls flat on his face? Was there something to break his fall? (video clip)
No, he just fell forward, straight on the floor. He is very athletic, so after 3 or 4 times, the scene was done. A scene which was harder to do was the one where Terence, Jennifer and I are skating towards the confessional, make a turn and skate back out with our hands folded. We had to do every movement in synch, all at the same time. After 17 tries, we managed! (video clip)

You also played the flute in one scene in church.
Yes, I was playing a concert flute. I was only able to play the block flute, so Terence asked me to take some lessons to learn the song I had to play in the movie on a concert flute.